Citing financial pressure, Colchester has pulled out of an ongoing effort to regionalize emergency dispatch services in Chittenden County.
Town Manager Aaron Frank, who is vice chair of the public safety board overseeing the initiative, said Colchester “values regional dispatch even if it is not the path for the Town.”
Colchester’s departure brings the number of participating municipalities down to four — Burlington, South Burlington, Winooski and Williston — from the eight envisioned when planning began in 2016. It remains to be seen how much of a setback this will pose to the yearslong effort being spearheaded by the Chittenden County Public Safety Authority.
And now, Burlington isn’t sure it will remain committed.
“This is a major disappointment and very concerning for the municipalities, departments, and voters that have long understood the meaningful benefits of standing up a regional dispatch system,” said Derek Libby, acting fire chief in Burlington who is on the board of the authority.
“Without a resolution before Town Meeting Day, it is unlikely that Burlington will be able to continue supporting this initiative,” he said.
Despite the dwindling numbers, others involved in the project said the long-term benefits of a regional service — combining dispatching for police, fire and EMS — still outweigh the financial hurdles. It’s a conversation that dates back 50 years but budgetary concerns, staffing challenges and varying public safety needs across Chittenden County have made it a challenge to implement.
Leaders say they are eager to continue toward consolidation but are cautioning that progress on the project, which was formally launched in 2018, could be slow.
“We are being very open and working in partnership with all of our surrounding communities about how we can provide better regional services,” South Burlington City Manager Jessie Baker said. “If it’s not with Colchester, it could be with any of the other partner communities currently in CCPSA. So, yes, I think something could move forward at an incremental pace.”
In the meantime, Williston, another member town, has just signed an agreement to merge its police dispatch services with those of Essex but will remain a partner in the regional effort.
Williston Town Manager Erik Wells, who serves on the public safety authority’s board, said he anticipates the board “will continue to look at approaches and strategies to stand up the dispatch center in the coming years.”
South Burlington Fire Chief Steven Locke, who chairs the public safety authority, said a regional system would enhance capacity, help address staffing challenges and create a system in which dispatchers know “the status of every fire truck, every ambulance, every police car in the county and if they need to send resources they can send the closest available unit, as quickly as they can, to provide the best service to our citizens.”
“It really comes down to quality of service and the ability to share resources across the county seamlessly,” Locke said. So, “when someone calls 911, that call goes to that one place and it is not transferred.”
The current effort stems from a 2016 study that prompted a joint survey committee with representatives from eight Chittenden County communities. The committee determined a combined regional dispatch and 911 call center in one location could reduce response time by an average of 71 seconds per call by eliminating call transfers.
In 2018, seven communities signed an agreement for the formation of a union municipal district, as laid out by Vermont statute.
That March, residents in Burlington, Colchester, Milton, South Burlington, Williston and Winooski voted to create the public safety authority to provide regional emergency dispatch services.
Essex had earlier decided not to vote on it. Shelburne voters rejected the proposal, and in 2019, Milton decided to instead turn to St. Albans to provide services. Williston does not plan to use the regional dispatch until fiscal year 2025, according to documents shared by Frank, the vice chair of the public safety board.
“As the number of partner communities diminished, it was more difficult to make CCPSA work for a similar cost as we had planned,” he said.
The public safety authority, which has so far created a budget and secured startup funding, was aiming to begin regional dispatch operations in fiscal year 2024. It is unclear whether Colchester’s departure will delay that timeline.
The effort does not come cheap. The operating cost for fiscal year 2024 was estimated in November to be between $2.8 million and $3.8 million.
“Regional dispatch requires significant new overhead costs in professional services and insurance, software and IT services; rent, utilities, telecom and supplies,” Frank said.
The authority has outlined more than $3.5 million in startup costs and has secured more than $2 million in state and federal funds, according to documents. After two rounds of local capital funding totaling $612,553 from the five member communities, the CCPSA hopes to collect the remaining funds by Jan. 15.
At present, municipalities are expected to contribute financially each year. After ratification of the funding agreement, the payments will become mandatory. Contributions are based on call volumes for police, fire and rescue services in each community.
For fiscal year 2024, the authority requested an additional $463,765 from Burlington, $235,914 from South Burlington, $206,447 from Colchester, 128,978 from Williston and $114,896 from Winooski.
After decades of failed attempts, Libby from Burlington said the authority made great progress in the last two years. It was on the verge of hiring an executive director and nearly ready to encumber capital construction expenses.
“Unfortunately, recent events have seriously jeopardized the viability of the project,” he said, citing lost state funding and Colchester’s recent decision.
The Colchester Selectboard voted on Dec. 13 to not provide the funding this year. In a letter to the public safety authority, Pam Loranger, the board chair, wrote that the decision “was not intended to be a dismissal of the vision of regional dispatch” but rather a financial decision “in a year where we are facing unprecedented cost increases due to inflation.”
Colchester has five staff and one vacancy for dispatchers for four areas of public safety — police, fire, rescue and technical rescue — plus some part time workers. It has budgeted $558,071 for dispatch services in fiscal year 2024. Participation in the CCPSA dispatch services would cost the town $770,376 or 38% more, according to Frank.
“There are areas where local governments can do things better together when they share common values around the services being delivered. I believed regional dispatch was one of those areas,” he said.
Colchester’s decision to withdraw was announced at the public safety authority’s last meeting on Dec. 19. The town seeks to remain a non-voting member of the authority and is interested in collaborating on a computer-aided dispatch system and improving mutual aid, Frank said.
In Winooski, City Manager Elaine Wang, who is on the CCPSA board, said she still hopes the regionalization effort comes to fruition. The City Council will discuss the dispatch budget on Jan. 23. Wang has recommended a $458,618 budget for fiscal year 2024.
“My hope for the initiative in 2023-2024 is that we find a solution that is consistent with the initial plan: be financially affordable for Winooski, and have dispatch services that work well” for the city’s emergency responders, Wang said.
With one dispatcher on at all times, Winooski Fire and EMS is challenged when there is more than one call for service at a time, and a complex situation often calls for multiple dispatches, she said.