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Technical challenges delay Southwick-Westfield regional dispatch

Date: 2/16/2022

SOUTHWICK — Technical issues are causing a delay to the initial time frame for Southwick emergency calls to transition to a regional emergency dispatch center in Westfield. The completion date has now been pushed out by about six months.

“There are a lot of technical issues that we still need to work out – and that’s been our challenge,” Southwick Police Chief Robert Landis said last week. “We have to go through a procurement process to do that right, and make sure all of our bases are covered. We don’t want to be coming back and piecemealing anything.”

Nina Barszcz, dispatch administrator for the Westfield Public Safety Communications Center, who has been overseeing the project, also said last week that she now anticipates Southwick will be fully merged into the center by the beginning of 2023.

The original timeline to upgrade Westfield’s dispatch center to handle calls from its neighboring town was 12 to 18 months. Barszcz provided that estimate early last summer following approval of an agreement between the communities to develop the regional dispatch center.

Fiber optic cable that will carry data between Southwick and Westfield was laid in the fall, but Landis and Southwick Fire Chief Russ Anderson said they are still dealing with equipment delays and pricing issues.

At one point, they “regrouped” to re-issue requests for proposals for new radios being funded by a grant related to the merger.

“It’s really been a moving target for us,” said Landis.

An aging radio system used by both departments is one reason Southwick began looking at regionalization options about a year ago. Anderson said the entire infrared radio infrastructure system, including the consoles where dispatchers sit, would need to be replaced soon.

“Our equipment is near end-of-life usage. The need to invest in just mobile repeaters on the poles would cost $1.5 million,” he said.

Anderson added that a state mandate requiring Southwick dispatchers to have emergency medical certification and stay on the phone to ask medical questions is another factor. He said that mandate would create “an extra burden” that would work against the efficiency of the dispatchers.

Since Southwick only has a single-seat dispatch – one person working at a time – Anderson said dispatchers would be “tasked to do a lot with a little.” The fire chief said the town was at “a crossroads” between staffing and equipment.

“Do we expand our staffing? Do we invest in our equipment?” he asked.

In addition, Anderson said the state has been pushing communities to regionalize.

“A lot of departments have done it. It’s attractive in a lot of ways,” said Anderson.

He and Landis said it also made sense that if Southwick was going to regionalize, that it should work with neighboring Westfield, because of the strong history of mutual assistance between the two communities.

Building on an already established relationship, said Landis, has been helpful to Southwick in traversing hurdles associated with the merger. “This is a big project,” he said. “It’s more than just a personnel issue of moving dispatchers.”

Although some Southwick dispatchers have left months ahead of the merger, Landis and Anderson said they don’t anticipate any staffing shortages. They said the four full-time career dispatchers, who all have more than 30 years of service, “have no intention of leaving” until the merger is completed.

“They’ve been extremely supportive and professional throughout this whole process,” said Landis. While there may be some part-time shifts that could need to be filled, he and Anderson have been working with Barszcz to bring dispatchers from Westfield. Volunteering during their off shifts to train in Southwick, they could be ready to fill any voids in shift coverage should the need arise.

Barszcz said three Westfield dispatchers have stepped up to go to Southwick for training shifts in the next couple of weeks on a per-diem basis. They will learn how police and fire responders are dispatched in that town, and familiarize themselves with Southwick’s emergency equipment. Many are already familiar with the town because they live in the area.

Technology also allows dispatchers to see where someone is calling from when it comes up on the screen.

“But technology is only as good as technology,” said Landis. “Sometimes, you need the human thought process of what’s where.”

Having some Westfield dispatchers in Southwick now also will help Barszcz in her training process when the regional center finally opens. They will assist her in training other Westfield dispatchers about the procedures they’ve learned as well as information about the town’s geography and its fire apparatus.

Barszcz said she just hired two dispatcher candidates in Westfield, who will begin their training in the next two weeks. She plans to hire one more dispatcher to fulfill the staffing model she’s envisioned for taking on Southwick’s emergency calls.

If more Southwick dispatchers were to leave, there have been discussions about creating a “hybrid” model. Under this scenario, Westfield dispatchers would cover the town’s emergency calls at night. with each community handling its own calls during the day.

But Barszcz said it can’t be done just yet, because Westfield has no way to communicate with Southwick’s first responders. She’s trying to get work started on building a system so Westfield dispatchers could communicate with Southwick police and fire personnel if needed.

She added that if there were a situation where Westfield had to cover Southwick shifts, it could be done: “It wouldn’t be ideal, but I would use my resources to figure out a game plan.”

Making 911 calls from Southwick ring in Westfield is a fairly easy switch that the state can do easily, Barszcz added.

Having Westfield dispatchers handle Southwick’s emergency medical calls – discussed last year as a potential intermediate step – is not likely to happen before the full merger, Barszcz said.

At one point, she said, it seemed “like it was a go.” But Barszcz said when the extent of the process became known, Southwick dispatchers decided to keep their medical certification “for the time being,” since it’s only a year or so until the merger is finalized.

The chiefs said Barszcz and her team have been on top of things and have been “more than accommodating” to Southwick. “They want to get there as soon as we do,” said Landis.

According to Landis and Anderson, a regional dispatch center will improve communications – especially when there is a major incident in town. They said there will be more people to answer phones or radios, something Southwick can’t provide now with a single dispatcher.

When the transition is completed, Landis said he has no doubt that the new system will be seamless for Southwick residents.

“When a resident from here calls 911, they won’t notice any difference if phones are being picked up in Southwick or in Westfield,” he said.