A host of questions: Town eyes 911 study with Lincoln, Carlisle

Lincoln was already on board.

Now Carlisle is, too. 

Far from a final commitment, Acton and its neighbors want to formally study whether they could regionalize emergency dispatch services. 

This comes just over 18 months after an agreement with Acton collapsed. Acton officials are optimistic about their new proposal even as Carlisle leaders hedge their bets.

“This is very good,” Acton Town Manager Kerry Lafleur said as she relayed Carlisle’s decision to the Select Board. 

The Acton effort would have used a “district model” with an independent administration similar to the arrangement for Acton-Carlisle High School. 

The deal fell apart as Acton officials alleged poor communication and questioned a push to put a new regional center next to Acton’s police headquarters. 

Narrowing options

The state is still incentivizing regionalization. Acton officials are now considering a “hosted model,” in which the town would run its own dispatch and contract with other towns to manage their needs.

Dispatchers would be Acton employees, and the town would keep “a little bit more local control,” Emergency Communications Center Manager Stephen Johnson told the Select Board this year.

Regionalization can minimize burnout, spread out infrastructure costs, and reduce call transfer times, Johnson said.

Most area towns are still going it alone, but the service landscape is changing, Johnson told the Carlisle Select Board. 

“The options for partnerships are going to narrow as time progresses,” he said. 

Carlisle panelists agreed to join a feasibility study, though they aren’t committing to a regional arrangement.

“This is really an opportunity to get some information,” board Chair Scott Triola said last month.

The road ahead

Officials plan to apply for a state grant to fund a regional study, Lafleur told The Acton Bridge after her March 16 Select Board presentation.

The Collins Center for Public Management at the University of Massachusetts Boston could run a study at no cost to the towns as a “plan B” if aid doesn’t come through, Lafleur said. 

Among several questions, this review would figure out how dispatchers might manage the fact that Carlisle’s fire department operates on an on-call basis rather than a career format in which firefighters spend their shifts in a firehouse, Lafleur said.

Johnson has touted regional dispatch as a way to boost public safety. Finance staff have framed a hosted setup as a possible new revenue source for Acton as towns pay into the program.

Lafleur previously told The Bridge that towns probably wouldn’t roll out a new 911 model until the 2028 or 2029 fiscal year.