Pepperell Board of Selectmen Hears Case for Regional 911 Dispatch Partnership

PEPPERELL — June 7, 2017 — Pepperell selectmen hold packed public forum on regional 911 dispatch plan already voted into motion. The Board of Selectmen convened a standing-room information session June 7 to answer community questions about the town's signed inter-municipal agreement to join a new Regional Emergency Communications Center with Tewksbury and Dracut, targeted to open in January 2019. Frank Posniak, Executive Director of the Massachusetts State 911 Department, told the board that development grants totaling close to $2.2 million had already been awarded for architectural and construction work, with a new fiscal year 2018 application exceeding $5 million pending, and said the grants were designed to cover "virtually every penny" of startup costs to the participating towns. Pepperell's estimated annual operating contribution is $163,000, compared with a current dispatch infrastructure that includes a console installed in 2001, radio repeaters from 2007, and antennas from 1988. Cohasset Fire Chief Robert Sylvia, whose South Shore RECC has operated since 2012, reported that annual incentive grant receipts for his four-town center had grown from roughly $130,000 to more than $650,000 over five years. Resident speakers pressed the board on equipment maintenance responsibilities, front-desk staffing, mutual aid continuity with non-partner border towns, and a repeatedly raised process complaint: the Board of Selectmen had already voted to sign the agreement before Wednesday's public forum was held.