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Date: 2/11/2021
SOUTHWICK – After listening to a presentation from the fire and police chiefs at the Feb. 1 Select Board meeting, the Southwick Finance Committee voted in favor of supporting a letter of intent to join WestCOMM regional dispatch at its Feb. 2 meeting, before the Select Board agreed to the same letter at its Feb. 8 meeting.
To start the conversation Finance Committee Member Terry Mish said he was in favor of joining the regional dispatch provider.
“I think it’s a no brainer as far as what it frees up in time between training, looking for new computer things we have to keep up with for dispatch, hiring and firing, and filling in if somebody’s out, it’s taken right out of our hands. It should be a professional organization and I feel this is the way to go for this,” he said.
While he was in favor of the letter of intent, Committee Vice Chair Art Pinell said he was concerned about the loss of jobs and keeping the service local.
“When I first heard about the proposal, the first thing that popped into my mind was the loss of local control. I also couldn’t resolve in my mind that we had long time, dedicated employees losing their jobs. Where I stand tonight is that I’m going to support the Selectman’s effort to move forward with the letter of intent, but I certainly haven’t resolved those issues,” he said.
Along with Pinell, Committee Chair Linda Bathel said she was unsure about the loss of jobs, but she said joining WestCOMM was in the best interest of Southwick’s taxpayers.
“My concern is that I think it’s worth moving forward with, but I do have reservations. I do worry about the current staff and the potential of them being able to continue with WestCOMM. There’s no going back so that makes me uncomfortable, but I don’t see a better option for us or the taxpayers right now,” she said.
Committee member Bob Horacek said joining a regional dispatch is Southwick’s best option going forward because of the costs for remaining the same or becoming a two-seat dispatch.
“We have three options before us, one of those is to stay as we are, and I really don’t see that as an option. We would have to essentially double our personnel with a two-seat chair or go regional. From a financial aspect that is quite costly to double our personnel,” he said.
After the Finance Committee meeting, the Select Board then met and had a brief discussion about the letter of intent before agreeing to move forward with it at their Feb. 8 meeting.
Since the board was just approving moving forward with the grant process, Board Vice Chair Joe Deedy was in favor of the letter of intent.
“I think we’re just applying for a grant at this time and I’m comfortable with that. I get the big picture and I know people are aggravated but it’s just the grant process. Should that get approved, we’ll cross the next bridge when we get there,” he said.
After the board approved the letter of intent, Board Chair Doug Moglin reminded the board that they could still back out of the agreement once the grant process finishes.
“There was documentation for what happens later on, but this is all we needed to do at this point. Again, this is just an exploratory motion at this point to send a letter of interest to WestCOMM so they can then go start looking at grant documents and radios,” he said.
Chief Administrative Officer Karl Stinehart added that this agreement was the fourth time the board had signed a regional dispatch letter of intent in the last six years.