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Town of Hubbardston
July 26, 2018 ·
Town of Warren to join Rutland dispatch center

HUBBARDSTON — Town officials have ap­­proved the Rutland Reg­ional Emergency Com­munication Center’s plan to add the town of Warren to the center, which will save Hubbard­ston thousands of dollars.

Currently, the Com­munication Center serves Barre, Oakham, Rutland and Hubbardston.

However, it will expand to include Warren starting in January, which will save Hubbardston roughly $18,000 a year. Currently, the town spends $134,241 on dispatch, but after the savings begin the town will spend $116,502.

“There are no known drawbacks to adding Warren,” Director of Communications Michael Moriarty said. “There won’t be any change in service to any of the towns, and Hubbardston will have the same service.”

In order to address the additional calls, the Communication Center is hiring additional dispatchers in order to assure no change in service with the addition of Warren.

“We are happy to be realizing long-term savings due to the addition of Warren into RECC,” Board of Selectmen Chairman Dan Galante said. “We feel as though we vetted it thoroughly and asked all of the necessary questions to make sure the citizens of Hubbardston are unaffected by this merger.”

Hubbardston was the last town to approve Warren into the center.

With Warren added, the current capacity of the facility will be maxed out, but the center is still looking at options to allow future expansions that could save the towns even more money.

“We are looking at new locations to continue to grow,” Moriarty said. “The building next door to us actually, if we move into that
we will be able to hold even more towns.”

With each town that is added to the center, there will be more overall savings for the towns already participating.

The Communications Center has also found additional savings in switching to Swift 911, swapping out Code Red, for recorded mass emergency calls. Swift 911 offers the same townwide calling services that CodeRed does, for about $7,000 less to the cost of each town using the center.

With Swift 911, the town is able to make wide-ranging calls for a number of scenarios, notably emergencies like floods or serious crime, but Swift 911 will also allow people to sign up for specific call lists, so they can be notified about non-emergencies like town meetings as well.

I would think that an F.B.I. academy graduate would know or could figure out it is more important to have police officers available, as in the realistic total number required for true safety of all (police and residents) rather than try to maintain the old guard of two departments when in fact one could be moved or reworked for the betterment of the the Town as a whole. Again, it all comes down to funding and looking at one of the objectives of prop 2 1/2: better, more efficient government. When is that going to happen?

Templeton special town election, June 11, 2007, voters approve an override of $735,700.00 to fund the operating budget of Narragansett school district.

Templeton special town election, October 15, 2013, voters approve an override of $620,000.00, of which $550,459.00, went to funding the Narragansett school district budget.

What will happen in 2020; override, another 1/12 budget, possible more town cuts? Another roller coaster financial year and some of that can be traced back to May, 2019, when the select board voted to spend over 60 thousand dollars of your tax money so Hubbardston could get their accounting service done for 37 thousand dollars (the amount Hubbardston is paying Templeton this year) One reason given for this is to hopefully entice Hubbardston to move their dispatch service to Templeton from Rutland. Would that be a bribe like move??

Time to stop all the bullshit, face reality and selectmen need to do what is best for Templeton and yes, that means from a financial stand point. After all, it is all about the dollars. Why people go to New Hampshire to shop, avoid sales tax. Why do people fudge (cheat) on taxes, why do people shop online, why do people push for college? It is all about the money, save or spend less, make more, etc. Nobody wants to invest in a company that spends more to make less, you would not put your retirement dollars in a company like that, so why do you want your money spent like that?? The town administrator put it in front of the selectmen, he made a pitch for it, but they ultimately voted for it, signed off on it and made that dumb move. They even sat their and touted how good things were/are and how great a job they had done / were doing. Since you do not show for meetings, they assume you do not care, that is the message I have heard either being at or watching selectmen meetings in the past (pre May 2019)

Look at Scout Hall and you tell me how great they were.

You might not hear this from a selectmen meeting because the board of selectmen representative to capital planning, selectmen Richards, has been absent from many capital planning meetings.
One proposal on the table is for highway to trade in excavator towards purchase of new backhoe. Trade in allowance for excavator listed at $85,000.00 (it cost new in 2014 at around 200 thousand) quite the loss (it was bought new by way of trade in of old excavator and chapter 90 money or commonly known as road funds) My thought on excavator was it was dumb move on part of selectmen to approve purchase of excavator in first place.

So, now , you the taxpayer and hopefully town meeting attendee, will be asked to decide if this is a good move or not.