Public safety building

Chief Meaney today responded to questions that had been asked of me by a resident last week (which I in turn forwarded to the Chief and others in the know about the proposed public safety building) –

Mr. McKeown, Pete and others,

Here is what I have on the questions. Hopefully some of this was answered with the recent mailing as well as documents and presentations that have been placed on the Permanent Building Committee website medfieldpbc.org .

Here are some more specific answers:

What is the funding plan?
The project will be funded through a 20 year municipal bond which we anticipate will come in at a rate of 4%. This rate is based on opinions from Town Administrator and Town Treasurer.

Justification for the facility size/number of vehicles/personnel.

The size is based on anticipated needs over the next 50-70 years. Chief Kingsbury and I have spent many hours going over the space needs with professional consultants based on how Medfield handles public safety now and in the future. This process began several years ago but most recently over the past two years. One point that is very clear is that the current method of staffing the Fire Department is changing and has been changing over the past 10-15 years. The department currently has a chief and 8 firefighter/EMTs. The main goal is to staff the ambulance. When there is need for more assistance or there is an alarm of fire; part time, call firefighters are summoned to the station by way of a radio system that alerts the personnel of the need. These individuals then respond to the station from their homes or jobs to staff the vehicles and fight the fire or assist the ambulance. This manner of firefighting is disappearing in all parts of the country and not just Medfield. At some point in the future a decision will be made by the townspeople that more full time personnel are needed. That recommendation will come from the Fire Chief and proposed to the Board of Selectmen. Funding for this would then be proposed at Town Meeting where the voters can approve or reject the request. The transition to a full time Fire Department will be over a period of many years. The idea is to have sufficient capacity in the building to accommodate this need which is definitely coming, it is simply a matter of when.

The apparatus bay is designed to house only the current equipment with the addition of one ambulance. The apparatus bay is designed so that it will not be necessary to have equipment custom built in order to fit in the building, as is the current state of affairs. The most recent piece of apparatus was designed to fit into the garage under the police station and was built to tolerances of only a few inches, since that is all the room that exists. As a result, you can see that it is not anticipated that Medfield will require additional pieces of equipment but as the current equipment is replaced, it needs to have space to fit in. The additional ambulance will eliminate the need to rely on mutual aid from other towns when our ambulance is out of service due to routine maintenance or mechanical failure. This just happened earlier this month, so that while the EMS personnel respond to the scene in a fire vehicle, they cannot transport until another town arrives with their ambulance. It should be noted that this additional ambulance is obtained by simply not trading in the current ambulance (for which a very minor trade in amount is received) The new ambulance is financed by a revolving account that is supported by fees collected from insurance companies when individuals are treated and transported to the hospital.

On the police side, any expansion in personnel is accomplished through the same funding process mentioned above. My need for additional personnel is different than the Fire Department. The next year or so will hopefully see the addition of a School Resource Officer and the restoration of a half Detective position. We currently have 4 full time dispatchers and I can see this increasing by one over the next few years. Increases in housing (West Street and the unknown potential at the former State Hospital) may increase the need for additional personnel. But that is not anticipated to be a major factor such as what Westwood is going through with the addition of University Avenue Station project. An additional factor is that sooner rather than later, the building that the auxiliary police use at the former State Hospital will be dealt with; most likely taken down. It has no water, sewer or heat but serves the minimal purpose of housing radios and is used as a meeting location. These personnel (10-15) will also be absorbed into the proposed public safety building. They will be able to use the EOC (Emergency Operations Center)/training room for meetings and training, have room to store equipment and the person in charge of the unit will have a desk to operate from in the second floor open office area.

The proposed building will also house the Town’s computer infrastructure. The IT is currently in a couple of locations with less than ideal security and emergency power supply. This will put it in one secure space with generator back up to allow for continuous operation.

Future growth

As mentioned, we have spent considerable time exploring this. Even if the former State Hospital were to be replaced with 1500 additional residents, this would add a small number of ambulance runs per month. As far as police services; this would certainly increase somewhat. I do not anticipate it to change call volume such that the Town will need to hire several additional personnel. At this point we do not know what the area will end up looking like but I feel comfortable that the proposed building can handle it. The reason I say this is that on the police side, the limiting factor for patrol personnel is the amount of locker space for employees to store equipment. Once an officer arrives for duty they are on patrol, for the most part. So I need to have space for their equipment, to have roll call, type reports, eat, and do training. As far as support services, I need spaces for dispatch, an office for the sergeants to share, an area for detectives, prosecutor and general investigative services. I also need areas to process and hold prisoners, process and store evidence, an area to store weapons and store the volumes of records that we maintain. Computers have not decreased the need for paper records, it has actually increased it. The building also provides for some growth in administration and a small fitness room that equates to what you would find at a Holiday Inn, (room for perhaps 3 aerobic machines and some limited weightlifting equipment, such as hand weights). There are also areas to conduct interviews, unsecure detention for juveniles (as required) and process firearm permits and other licenses. These rooms also have other functions as we have tried to make best use of the space we have. On the second floor, we have designed an open office type concept that can be used by the School Resource Officer, Animal Control Officer, Auxiliary Police Supervisor and others not currently anticipated. So we also have flexibility in the building with appropriate room for growth.

Hope this all helps explain things from our point of view…..Chief Bob Meaney

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Chief Robert E. Meaney, Jr.
Medfield Police Department
110 North Street
Medfield, MA 02052
508-359-2315 (Dispatch)
508-359-6926 (Fax)

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