For the last year the town has been working on two major public safety projects, the renovation of the EMS facility and improvements to our emergency services communication network.
As you recall, in 2023 we hired a consulting group to review our emergency services. One of their highest valued recommendations was that our communication system was outdated, particularly for our fire department, and needed to be upgraded. This has been well known for more than a decade. A committee of our emergency service chiefs selected a vendor, and after working with them for several months a comprehensive plan and bid was submitted, reviewed and accepted. It will provide new radios for police and fire and new infrastructure to improve the spotty coverage in town that now exists.
EMS currently has good coverage due to recent upgrades to the tower on top of Silverman’s Farm. The new radios will also work with the systems employed by surrounding towns with whom we often work in concert. The timing of the need for funding has to do with certain incentives from the vendor, which will expire shortly.
On Sept. 30, there will be a special town meeting to approve funding for this upgrade to the town’s emergency services communication system. The total cost of the upgrade is $3.1 million. The Board of Finance has chosen to first use the federal ARPA (Covid) money which is approximately $1.8 million. The remaining money will be allocated form our undesignated (or “rainy day”) fund. This may be confusing to some.
As I have written consistently, the federal ARPA money was to be used for the EMS renovation as had been planned since the funds first became available. However, because the federal ARPA money must be committed by Dec. 31, there was concern that we might not have a signed contract for the renovation by that deadline. If that happened we could lose the funds altogether. For that reason, the Board of Finance decided to fund the purchase of the radios in this fashion.
Following the town meeting there will be a referendum on Oct. 8, at Samuel Staples Elementary school from 12 to 8 p.m. I urge you to vote YES for this much needed and long overdue upgrade.
Ideally, I would have combined the request for the appropriation with the funding for the new EMS renovation. However, since we will not have an accurate number for the EMS request until bids for a construction company are returned, the appropriation for EMS will require a second town meeting in December. Folks have expressed near universal support for going ahead with this project as well. You can all see from the design and pictures how this will take shape.
All along we have shared a projected total cost of approximately $3.7 million for the renovation and site work for EMS. The Board of Finance has committed approximately $1 million from the Local Community Improvement fund (LOCIP, a state grant to the town) to EMS. In December we will likely ask for the remaining amount at a town meeting and subsequent referendum. Again, that money will be appropriated from our undesignated fund, which by most measures has considerably more than we safely need.
Taken together the total upgrade for communications and EMS headquarters will be approximately $6.7 million. Toward that amount we have approximately $1 million in funds from the LOCIP fund, which is a reimbursable grant from the state, and $1.8 million dollars from federal ARPA funds, now committed for the radios.
The EMS Foundation has committed $700,000, which must be used for the renovation and soft costs, and the state grant for $396,000 will be used for site work and the necessary septic update. Therefore, $4.1 million of the combined cost will be funded from outside sources, not our tax dollars. Both projects should lead to considerable improvements in public safety, that are long overdue.
