Barnstable agrees to tri-town pact to build regional dispatch center. Yarmouth is next.

Barnstable is getting ready to partner with Sandwich and Yarmouth on a new regional emergency communications center, which the town will host.

The Town Council recently voted unanimously to enter an intermunicipal agreement with the towns that lays the foundation for the project. It's the second board to approve the pact, which also got unanimous support from the Sandwich Board of Selectmen on March 28. The Yarmouth Select Board is scheduled to discuss the subject and vote on April 23.

Barnstable Police Chief Jean Challies explained at the April 4 Town Council meeting that the intermunicipal agreement, which sets up the operating structure of the proposed shared dispatch center and outlines the towns' financial responsibilities, needs to be in place before the towns can take advantage of incentive grants from the State 911 Department, an agency within the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security.

The agency, she said, strongly supports establishing regional Public Safety Answering Points, or PSAPs, through incentive grants. Barnstable officials have been working on the proposal with their counterparts in Yarmouth and Sandwich for the last two years, along with the State 911 Department and the UMass Boston Collins Center for Public Management, which conducted a feasibility study.

"The study concluded that these three communities are well suited to establish a regional PSAP in the form of a Regional Emergency Communications Center, or a RECC, and that there would be both operational and financial benefits to all three communities," Challies said.

Is Barnstable part of the Regional Emergency Communications Center

At present, the three towns operate individual PSAPs. None of them is part of the Regional Emergency Communications Center operated out of Joint Base Cape Cod by the Barnstable County Sheriff's Office although that center does serve as back-up for Barnstable and provides fire and emergency medical service dispatch for the Barnstable and West Barnstable fire districts.

With an intermunicipal agreement in place, the towns can receive incentive grants for design, engineering, construction and initial operation of the regional dispatch center. The towns already received a $373,000 award last July for the initial engineering and architectural services, pending the signed intermunicipal agreement. They are in line for another $476,000 grant in fiscal year 2025, for the same purpose.

"Once that planning and design is complete, we anticipate requesting additional grant funding available through State 911 incentive programs that will cover the full cost of construction and startup for the regional dispatch center," Challies said.

The center "would be a new facility" with new, up-to-date equipment "somewhere in the vicinity of" the existing Barnstable Police Station on Phinney's Lane, according to the chief.

How much will Barnstable save with a tri-town dispatch center

Regionalizing dispatch services will mean millions in savings for all three towns. As just one example, Sandwich officials noted at their March 28 meeting that the town is expected to realize $3.5 million in savings during the center's first six years of operation. Barnstable and Yarmouth also look to realize savings topping $1 million.

Sandwich Fire Chief John Burke, talking at the Sandwich selectmen's meeting on March 28, said besides the financial benefits, regionalizing offers further professionalization of emergency dispatch services, increases opportunities for training and advancement, gives the ability to provide supervisory capacity, and to provide stable staffing and response "in a very difficult recruiting environment and retention environment."

The State 911 Program is expected to support all center operating costs for the first three years, reducing to 50% for year four, and 25% for year five. By year six, the towns would look to fully fund their share of costs.

According to Challies, the financial responsibilities once grants diminish, would be based on each town's volume of emergency calls and their population. According to preliminary estimates, Barnstable would take on more than 50% of the responsibility, followed by Yarmouth with 27% and Sandwich with 18%.

For Barnstable, the regional dispatch would include the townwide police dispatch and fire dispatch for Hyannis Fire, since those two departments presently have a joint dispatch. The town's other four, independent fire districts — Barnstable, West Barnstable, Cotuit and Centerville-Osterville-Marstons Mills — could all later choose to participate in the regional service instead of going through the county as they do now, Challies said. But at least initially, she said, "they don't qualify" because the State 911 program is for existing PSAPs only.

Sandwich, meanwhile, would retain five communications staff members at its police station to address concerns about the potential of a "dark police station."

How will 911 calls work

"With this new system, the 911 equipment will be taken out of our building and will be in place at the RECC," said Sandwich Police Chief Jason Keene at the March 28 meeting. "When they receive a 911 call that requires police services in Sandwich, the call will be transferred to our dispatchers working within our station, and they will answer the call and dispatch appropriately."

These staff members, who presently take 911 calls for both the police and fire departments, would also be present to assist walk-ins, monitor anyone under police custody, and take general calls.

Officials said regionalizing dispatch should not increase response times. Burke said he is "totally comfortable where we're going," and he and Keene are "both 100% on board knowing both of our operations are not being negatively impacted."

The regional effort, in fact, will increase the number of communications officers overall, as well as the number who are specifically trained in fire rescue dispatching — a significant advantage to public safety, the chief said. Current dispatchers will be able to transfer into the regional center.

Sandwich Town Manager George Dunham said the center would complement the service provided to parts of the Cape by the sherriff's office "because if you had two larger dispatch outfits on the Cape and one went down, there's that immediate backup nearby."

If Yarmouth also approves the agreement later this month, planning for the new center can begin. It could take about three years to complete.

Heather McCarron can be reached at hmccarron@capecodonline.com, or follow her on X @HMcCarron_CCT

This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Barnstable agrees to tri-town pact to build regional dispatch center