Police, fire officials fight 911 mergers By Brent Curtis staff writer | January 24,2015 Email Article Print Article Provided Photo Tom Best dispatches police and emergency services from the Rutland call center, which would be absorbed by the Rockingham center under the governor’s budget proposal. Plans to merge an emergency call center in Rutland with another facility in Rockingham have police, fire and emergency medical crews in Rutland, along with the county’s legislative delegation, alarmed that public safety might be put at risk. But the state’s public safety commissioner, tasked with finding ways to trim a $93 million state budget deficit, said Friday that plans to consolidate dispatch centers would save $1.7 million without any change to the quality of emergency services. Since Gov. Peter’s Shumlin’s announcement last week that the state could realize savings through the consolidation of call centers, dispatchers handling 911 calls at one of those centers in Rutland and the agencies for which they handle calls have been lobbying against changes that they say could only diminish emergency response times. “From a dispatcher’s standpoint, this is a safety issue for responders and the public because it can only lead to delays in response time,” said Ann Masse, a dispatcher and union steward who works from the E-911 center housed in the Vermont State Police barracks in Rutland. Masse is one of 16 full-time and seven part-time dispatchers who work from the Rutland barracks, which is one of four public safety answering points — or PSAPs — in the state. The other three are in police barracks in Williston, Derby and Rockingham. The four PSAPs handle 75 percent of the 911 calls in the state, which last year totaled more than 215,000 calls. Many of those calls came from Rutland, which handled 38,000 emergency 911 calls last year and 65,000 calls for service in all. The remaining 25 percent of emergency calls are handled by private carriers in four small regions of the state, according to Department of Public Safety officials. The plan is to consolidate the Derby call center with Williston, while some of the dispatchers in Rutland — who dispatch emergency calls throughout Rutland, Bennington and Addison counties — would move to Rockingham for a year before moving again into a new call center the state plans to build in Westminster. The consolidated call center would handle emergency calls ranging from Charlotte to the Massachusetts border and east to west from New York to New Hampshire — roughly half the state. Public Safety Commissioner Keith Flynn said Friday that some of the $1.7 million in savings would come from reduced overtime hours and other efficiencies realized by the mergers. But the lion’s share of the reduced expenses would come from the elimination of 15 to 20 of the 71-full time and 33 temporary dispatcher positions. “My direction from the governor was to take a critical look at our operations and find efficiencies and cost savings without detriment to the services we provide,” Flynn said. “I took those instructions very seriously and went at my task with the premise that we would find efficiencies and cost savings that do not come at the expense of risks to police, fire or (emergency medical services) workers,” he said. The commissioner said technological upgrades, including mountaintop antennas, global-positioning technology, directed communications lines and improved console capabilities have for years made it possible for dispatchers on opposite ends of the state to field each other’s calls at need. “You could sit in a console in Rutland and dispatch cars in St. Albans with no discernible difference than if the dispatcher was located in St. Albans,” Flynn said. But Masse and other dispatchers, along with police and firefighters in Rutland County, said there’s more to handling emergency calls than technological improvements can provide. “A lot of people don’t understand what we do,” Masse said. “You need to know the roads and the intersections and the local landmarks that only the people who live in the area know about.” The dispatchers need to know the capabilities and personalities of the agencies for which they dispatch, she said. Referring to a nighttime crash on an icy road in West Haven last winter when a tour bus and tractor trailer collided, Masse said the dispatchers handling that call had to know how to quickly array all the emergency services needed to help the dozens of victims involved. “Someone in Rockingham isn’t going to know where to find 20 ambulances that can get to the scene the quickest,” she said. “These are situations where seconds count.” Wallingford Fire Chief Stephane Goulet said he was opposed to the consolidation and so were the roughly 50 other representatives from Rutland County fire and emergency-response agencies who attended a meeting Thursday night in West Pawlet where a pair of state police captains explained the merger plans. “They told us it’s a pretty done deal and it needs to happen because of the budget,” Goulet said. “But every fire chief in Rutland County is pretty perturbed about it. They want to snub all of us for $1.7 million? That’s pretty upsetting to all of the services around here.” Like Masse, Goulet said an intimate knowledge of the region and the police, fire and rescue agencies operating in it is essential for dispatchers and responders to work well together. “It’s about trust,” he said. “You know who you’re dealing with and they know you — your capabilities and what you need. During the day, I might roll trucks to a scene with only two or three guys. In that situation, I’ll think I’ve got to call for Clarendon to help, but they know us so well that they’ll dispatch Clarendon before I leave my house.” Fair Haven Police Chief William Humphries said his department and every other police agency in the county with the exception of Rutland Police and the county sheriff’s rely on the PSAP center to dispatch for them. “We think the changes they’re talking about would be detrimental to us all,” Humphries said. “They’re our lifeline and they’re from this area and know this area. The relationship we have is important. The job isn’t as simple as looking at Google maps.” Rutland Fire Chief Robert Schlachter, who is also president of the Rutland County Fire Mutual Aid Association, said the fire agencies voted Thursday night to oppose the state’s consolidation plan and the group is planning a forum next month to make their case to the public about why the plan is a bad idea. “Many people might say, ‘Hey, this is good, it saves money,’ but in other respects, there are consequences that threaten public safety,” Schlachter said. He said a forum at the Center Rutland Fire Station at 7 p.m. Feb. 8 will be held to educate legislators and the public on the relationship between dispatchers and emergency responders. Rutland County legislative delegates reached Friday said they don’t need any more convincing. “We’ve been hearing from everybody all over the county and the (Rutland) delegation is pretty much unanimously opposed to the move,” Sen. Kevin Mullin, R-Rutland, said. In addition to concerns about erosions to public safety, Mullin said he worried about the loss of good-paying jobs in Rutland County on the heels of a fire at Rutland Plywood last year that left 170 employees jobless and the closing of Sears and J.C. Penney at Diamond Run Mall in Rutland Town. “The delegation is working hard to keep those jobs in Rutland County,” he said. Mullin, and Rutland delegation chairman Rep. Butch Shaw, R-Pittsford, said they hope to avoid the job losses by consolidating the PSAP centers in Rutland County instead. Mullin and Shaw said they have spoken with Flynn and other state officials about speeding up a plan in the works for a long time to build new state police barracks in North Clarendon. “(Flynn) seemed open to consolidating the jobs in North Clarendon instead of Rockingham,” Mullin said. The commissioner would only say Friday that “nothing is set in stone” in terms of the PSAP center’s location. “Jobs that pay $50,000 to $70,000 a year are hard to lose,” he said. “And I know Rutland has been hammered. If we can find a way to keep jobs there, we will. I want to work with the delegation to do what we can.” Flynn and Deputy Public Safety Commissioner Francis “Paco” Aumand also disputed arguments that the consolidation would diminish public safety. Aumand, who was part of a similar consolidation 15 years ago when the number of emergency call centers in the state shrunk from 12 to the four that exist today, said similar predictions made at that time proved untrue. “This is the exact same thing we heard 15 years ago and the technology is much more advanced now,” Aumand said. Flynn said state officials would also expect training at the PSAP centers to instill as much local knowledge as possible to the dispatchers working in the consolidated centers. “Even the most experienced dispatcher doesn’t know every road or where everyone lives,” he said. “That’s why management needs to make training a priority. “If I thought for one moment that this would adversely affect public safety or the law enforcement, fire or EMS services in the state, I would be the first to bring it to a halt immediately,” Flynn added. “I don’t want anyone hurt on my watch.” brent.curtis @rutlandherald
Posted on: Sat, 24 Jan 2015 12:32:09 +0000
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