Easton residents will decide at a Dec. 10 special town meeting whether to move the town’s emergency dispatch services to a regional center in Fairfield and act on several other appropriations.
The Board of Selectmen scheduled the town meeting for 7 p.m. at Samuel Staples Elementary School after determining that a townwide referendum for the appropriations was not feasible under current time constraints.
Residents will be asked to vote on allocating $615,000 to transition to the Fairfield County Regional Dispatch Center. About $300,000 of that is eligible for state reimbursement, and roughly $165,000 would come from current budget savings. The town’s Dispatch Transition Working Group requested the $615,000 allocation in a November 2025 report, and the Board of Finance voted on Dec. 2 to advance the request to a town meeting.
Support for the transition comes from fire, EMS and police officials who say a regional dispatch center, staffed 24/7, would improve response times and replace outdated communications equipment. The working group report notes that Fairfield County Regional Dispatch has multiple dispatchers on duty around the clock, modern call-handling technology and built-in redundancy for storms and other high-demand events.
Easton Police Chief Foti Koskinas said a regional dispatch center would give his department access to modern communications technology like dispatch screens that show where police, fire, and EMS units are located in town. Easton dispatch doesn’t have dispatch screens.
“Not knowing where our emergency vehicles are at any given moment puts us at a disadvantage during emergency situations like multiple incidents or storms,” said Koskinas.
With a state grant helping to offset costs, Easton would be able to improve its public safety capabilities while actually reducing expenses, an opportunity that communities are rarely given, Koskinas said.
“It’s unusual for circumstances to line up like this,” he said, adding that any decisions that are made regarding public safety and emergency services are given extensive thought and collaboration by the emergency service management team.
“The two factors that are heavily weighed are the service needs of our community and the safety of the first responders,” he said.
The recommendation supporting the transition, prepared in November 2025 by the town’s Dispatch Transition Working Group, is based in part on a January 2023 Fire/EMS system analysis conducted by Emergency Services Consulting International. The working group concluded that keeping dispatch in Easton would require major upgrades, including $225,000 in new software and about $150,000 a year to replace part-time dispatchers with full-time staff, without solving the underlying concern of operating with a single dispatcher, which they note is inconsistent with state and national safety standards.
Under the proposed move to Fairfield County Regional Dispatch, the town instead would pay a one-time $615,000 in transition costs for new software, hardware, security improvements and vehicle technology, with $300,000 expected from a state transition grant and about $165,000 from current budget savings.
Those transition costs include a $150,000 FCRD transition fee, $175,000 for NEXGEN dispatch software on Easton’s side, security system upgrades and cameras at the police department and Town Hall, and $45,000 for new mobile data terminals and tablets for police, fire and EMS vehicles.
The report projects that, once the transition is complete, Easton would spend about $381,000 a year on public safety dispatching through FCRD, compared with roughly $490,000 today, saving taxpayers an estimated $108,000 annually and nearly $1 million over four years when transition costs, grants and cost avoidance are taken into account.
Emergency Management Director Schuyler Sherwood, who spoke in favor of the plan at the Nov. 20 Board of Selectmen meeting with Koskinas and other public safety officials, said a regional center, staffed 24/7, would improve response times and save taxpayers money by replacing outdated communications equipment.
“Moving from a single-person dispatch center will provide a higher level of safety for our responders and citizens, and it’s cost-effective,” Sherwood said. “If we don’t make this move, we will have to do technology upgrades, and they won’t be reimbursed by state grants.”
The proposal also includes upgrades to the security system and cameras at the police department and Town Hall as part of the dispatch transition package. If approved, Easton’s dispatch operations would eventually move to the regional center at Sacred Heart University, which already serves Westport and Fairfield.
In addition to the dispatch proposal, residents at the special town meeting will also consider adopting an ordinance to increase the stipend for Fire and EMS volunteers, adopting a revised Board of Fire Commissioners Ordinance, accepting a State Public Library Construction grant of up to $1 million and appropriating a matching $1 million from the undesignated fund balance for the library expansion project, and appropriating $150,000 from the undesignated fund balance for anticipated legal expenses.
The official agenda for the Dec. 10 special town meeting is available on the town’s website.
