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Date: 6/25/2015
LONGMEADOW – Town Manager Stephen Crane emphasized a goal to continue services that could be displaced at the Greenwood Center if a potential $5.7 million Hampden County regional emergency communications center (RECC) were approved at the location.
“We know how valuable the services that are provided both at the Greenwood Children’s Center as well as the Adult Center are to our community,” Crane said. “Sustaining those services will be a central part of our next planning process.”
The project, which would regionalize police dispatch efforts for the towns of Longmeadow, Hampden, Wilbraham, East Longmeadow, and Ludlow, is in its early planning stages and has yet to be approved by any of the communities, he added.
A consultant team representing the Carell Group presented information to the Select Board at its June 15 meeting, citing that Greenwood was the ideal site compared to two others – the future new police stations of Hampden and Wilbraham.
According to information from the team’s slideshow presentation, $8 million in grant funds are available annually for 911 developments throughout the Commonwealth and the Hampden County RECC could be awarded $5 million during a two to three year period.
“This report from the consultant team in no way obligated the town to participate in a regional dispatch center nor did it obligate Greenwood Center as the site for the RECC,” Crane said.
The five towns received a $100,000 collaborative grant from the State 911 Department, which was used to complete a feasibility study for the project, he noted.
The feasibility study focused on the technology of the RECC, funding, governance and structure, and staffing as well as some elements of the location, Crane said.
The next phase of the project is to examine the aspect of locations in much more depth, which would also include the five-town task force charged with reviewing the feasibility of the project examining additional sites, he added.
“This study that was just completed was not a site selection process,” Crane said.
Funding for the project wouldn’t be derived from town revenue streams, he noted. The state allocates grant money for 911 advancements through a surcharge on cell phone bills throughout the Commonwealth.
Crane said the future of dispatch at the local level is regionalizing with other communities because it is becoming costly to operate individual municipal dispatch centers.
“Regionalization of dispatch is clearly something the state is going to be incentivizing heavily now and in the future and it’s important for the town to really stay ahead of the curve on this,” he added. “My hope would be that people would separate their affinity for Greenwood from the merits of a regional dispatch center.”
Crane said the Greenwood Center is the top site thus far because the building is masonry constructed, has adequate square footage, is located away from a residential neighborhood, and the gymnasium space allows for a raised floor for a dispatch area.
“They could locate the entire facility within the current envelope of the building, meaning just renovation, not new construction,” he added.
The Hampden and Wilbraham sites would need new constructions in order for the RECC to work on either site, he explained.
If the Hampden County RECC were to come to Longmeadow, it would likely be a “runaway success” and other communities would look at what the town is doing and want to “learn more about us,” Crane said.
“This has already been a proven commodity in the Commonwealth in communities very similar to the five that are participating in this effort,” he added.
Crane said other communities might want to become part of the Hampden County RECC if it were established.
He added that he has no knowledge if there would cost the town money to move the Adult Center and Children’s Center if Greenwood were chosen as the final site.
“We would certainly view those costs as project costs, meaning that we would look to the state to off set those costs,” Crane said. “It’s too soon to tell if that’s actually going to happen or not.”
In addition, the town is looking at the possibility of constructing a new Adult Center.
“Our goal is going to be to continue the services,” Crane said. “That’s where additional sites might be offered, we might find additional sites for either the Children’s Center or the Adult Center … There are a couple of moving parts here that really could impact certainly the availability of space at Greenwood.”
He added that the next step to continue the process would be for the Select Board to agree to take part in a Regional Dispatch Center Planning Committee.
“The Planning Committee then applies for the next round of grants that would get us in to the more detailed site selection,” Crane said.
By the end of that planning process, the town is still not obligated to participate in a RECC, he noted. The town would likely take a vote on whether to take part in the Hampden County RECC once construction funding and plans are realized, Crane said. That stage could take place sometime within the next year.