ATHOL — Residents voiced their disapproval of a proposed regionalization of the town’s dispatching by voting overwhelmingly in favor of a special town meeting article aimed at dismantling the plan.
Voters on Monday opted to advise their Board of Selectmen to terminate the intermunicipal agreement with Gardner to regionalize Athol’s dispatch services. The proposal is to consolidate Athol police and fire dispatch with that of Gardner and operate in a regional emergency communication center in the new Gardner police station. The agreement got Selectmen’s approval on March 3, 2015, and was signed seven days later.
Monday’s vote by the 357 registered voters in Memorial Hall was non-binding. The selectmen are not required to terminate the agreement, which requires 18 months’ notice.
Mary Andrews-Roberts said her husband died of ALS and she believes may have lost him sooner if emergency dispatch services weren’t in Athol.
Former Athol dispatcher Sarah Gambrell said there is nothing wrong with regionalization in general, though it works best in smaller towns that receive fewer calls for service. She has been a staunch opponent of Athol-Gardner regionalization.
She said regionalization means the Athol station at 280 Exchange St. will be closed for the second and third shifts every day.
“This is not a department that can afford to have its doors closed at all,” she said at the podium on Monday. “The station was put there for a reason — because it’s centrally-located.”
The unions representing Athol’s firefighters, police officers and dispatchers filed formal opposition with the Board of Selectmen in September. They insist the town did not properly gather input from the unions. The unions say their members were not sufficiently consulted before the decision.
The motion’s wording changed after Athol Selectman Lee Chauvette made an amendment to alter it. Chauvette has opposed the proposal and how it is being rolled out. A conflict of interest left him unable to comment at the March 2015 meeting when the intermunicipal agreement was signed. His son was once a part-time dispatcher in Gardner and is now the president of NEPBA Local 59.
Kleber explained regionalization would result in an allocation of money that would allow him to hire another full-time police officer and update his department’s radio system. He said anyone using a cell phone to call his department is patched through to a dispatch center in Northampton or Framingham.
“There is something we have to do to be economical with the funds that we have in town,” he said.
The original article was put on the special town meeting warrant through a petition spearheaded by Holly Young, who continued to voice opposition to the proposal and how town officials handled the process.
“I think the public process here went very poorly,” she said.
Town Manager Shaun A. Suhoski, who has been accused of supporting regionalization for his own political gain, said regionalization would be safe and efficient.