Dalton Public Safety Panel Talks Regionalization
DALTON, Mass. — Public Safety Advisory Committee members have constantly emphasized the need to obtain funding toward a new police station to lessen the burden on taxpayers.
The Select Board allocated $100,000 from the American Rescue Plan Act funds for a feasibility study and a grant consultant rather than adding it to the special town meeting warrant in an effort to streamline the process. The committee has since ranked four properties to consider.
During its meeting in December, it was announced that the town has hired consultant Lisa Frisch as the grant writer for the proposed public safety building.
Frisch has a background in criminal justice and law enforcement and has been a consultant for grant writing for 20 years.
She will start to put together a list of preliminary funding sources and their deadlines.
"I would suggest that once we get the list, we might want to talk with her again and get her idea of when she thinks we should be going for some of these and what support we may need to put them in. I think we can do that at the beginning of February," committee co-Chair Craig Wilbur said.
Another line of investigation committee members highlighted during the discussion process is having a police station that could support regionalization.
Committee co-Chair Don Davis has repeatedly stated his belief that regionalization will occur in the future.
Committee member Anthony Pagliarulo has previously highlighted how looking into regionalization could provide more state funding opportunities. He recommended proposing a regionalization concept to a representative of state Sen. Paul Mark in the hopes of securing state and federal funding for the project through the Economic Development Bond bill.
"If you were going to ask for regionalization money, they would, at some point, want to see letters from other towns supporting the idea of regionalization, saying, 'if Dalton got the money, they would regionalize,'" Town Manager Thomas Hutcheson said.
A regionalizing study was conducted in 2022 for Dalton and the Hinsdale Police Department was conducted so that report can be used to demonstrate Dalton's intention to eventually regionalize, Pagliarulo said.
"[Regonalization in the future is] certainly is our intention [but] right now, it's not anybody else's intention to regionalize with us, and that's what it would take to get funding for regionalization," Hutcheson said.
The town could look into whether there is money for planning and studies to see if regionalization would work, Wilbur said.
"It's like the chicken and egg. It's a hard nut to crack, but if we wait for the towns to get on board, we may be so far ahead that it doesn't segue nicely. So, somehow, we have to propose that if we construct a building with the notion that these towns will join us, the state may allot us those monies accordingly," Pagliarulo said.
"It's almost like we have to look to the state to say, this is our goal, and then hopefully the towns will say, 'Yes.' I don't see us waiting for Windsor, Peru, or whomever to get on board. When we're this far along, it's the state that we have to convince that we want [other towns] to get on board, but [the state has] to help us with monies towards that end."
There isn't state funding available at the moment, but federal funding is available, Davis said.
The committee will be working parallel with the grant writer because the Economic Development Bond bill is separate from grants, resident Thomas Irwin said.
In addition, the committee can bring its regionalization proposal to other organizations including the state and federal emergency management agencies and other resources, he said.
There are towns struggling to afford full-time police officers and that rely on temporary officers with limited training, Irwin said.
The town can demonstrate that having a public safety building that can meet the needs of a regional facility can ease the transition to regionalization if there comes a time when a town loses its law enforcement capabilities, Irwin said.
"They're not going to be able to afford a full-time individual. They're going to need to turn to somebody, and we're going to be there," he said.
With some careful and sensible thinking, planning, and coordination with the state Dalton can be there for those towns when they default, Irwin said.
"I think it's attractive to not only us, but it's attractive to the other towns as well as the state, and it's consistent with what my conversations with [former state Rep. William "Smitty" Pignatelli] about regionalization and the mindset and the push by the state to that end," Irwin said.
Irwin said he believes that there is some degree of cooperation with Windsor.
"I know that Hinsdale has its concerns [about regionalizing with Dalton] despite the fact that they entered into a study with us, and at the time of the study did have some sort of a letter of interest, not necessarily commitment, but at least it had a letter of interest,"
The fact that Dalton already completed a regionalization study that sets up the basic parameters for how to regionalize shows a level of intent, not just "wistful thinking," which is going to increase the state's comfort level and make them more willing to enter into discussion on having funding for the project within the Economic Bond bill, Irwin said.
Pursuing those bills is a good thing to do however, the process is more complicated than it may seem, Hutcheson said.
"Two or three years ago, Dalton got a million dollars for the Town Hall in the Economic Development Bond bill. It was signed by the House, passed by the House, was passed by the Senate, and was signed by the governor. The bills were never issued," he said.
"It has to do with how much debt the state wants to take on at a certain point. So, it is more difficult than it looks."
Irwin said that may be the case but emphasized how helping an individual town is a little lower on the state's list of priorities than regionalization.
"So, I feel a little bit more confident that we'd have a higher, better chance of passing that gate if we were lucky enough to have it included in an Economic Development Bond bill," Irwin said.
Regionalization is going to be key, Pagliarulo said.
Since then, committee members have continued chipping away at its proposal and have ranked four properties to consider during its feasibility study.
Tags: police station,
