After Rejecting Regional 9-1-1, Danvers Faces Growing Problems at Dispatch Center
Ethan Forman, staff writer, The Eagle-Tribune
DANVERS — At the Danvers dispatch center, the radio consoles are so old that the manufacturer cannot guarantee it can find replacement parts, police Chief Neil Ouellette said.
Because the police station is so cramped, all of the station’s computer servers and radio networking infrastructure, along with phone lines and a battery backup system, sit in a basement that floods from time to time. And upstairs, civilian dispatchers are crowded into a space designed before they had computer monitors, sometimes pulling 16-hour shifts to cover when someone is out.
All those are among the reasons the town has been exploring ways to share a regional dispatch center. And now that the efforts have failed, it’s creating a sense of urgency about improving the situation.
Danvers could have joined the regional 911 center now under construction on the grounds of Middleton Jail, as neighboring Beverly, Wenham, Middleton and Topsfield have done. But selectmen balked at that, fearing it would create a large bureaucracy at the jail, along with soaring cost to cities and towns if state grants to subsidize the center dried up.
Instead, the town teamed with Salem and Marblehead to seek state money to study the possibility of a shared communications center. Late last month, however, Town Manager Wayne Marquis told selectmen that the three communities failed to win the grant. The state said it was already funding regional communications centers in Lynn and Swampscott and the regional center at Middleton Jail.
“They were reluctant to fund another situation,” Ouellette said.
Now, officials say, deficiencies within the Police Department’s communications center have reached a point where something has to be done.
In the short term, the town is in the process of upgrading its emergency radio equipment to comply with a Federal Communications Commission narrowband frequency requirement by Jan. 1, 2013. Assistant Town Manager Diane Norris said some radio equipment predates her 23 years working for the town.
But Ouellette said it is also time to address space needs within the police station.
When the station at 120 Ash St. was dedicated in 1977, there were no computers in the building, he said. Now, computer servers and other technology are crowded into the basement, which lacks climate controls to accommodate the high-tech equipment. This sensitive equipment also sits beneath water and sewer pipes.
Someone has seen it fit to prop a server on an old wooden chair.
In March 2010, the basement flooded, and water splashed on the black computer cabinet that houses E-911 equipment, shorting it out, Ouellette said.
Upstairs, in the first-floor communications center, two civilian dispatchers sit side by side, separated by a desk, in a cramped room filled with screens at varying heights.
“When this room was designed, there was no need for computer monitors,” Ouellette said.
There is no office space for communications. When the communications director, Richard Beaulieu, has to make backup tapes, he has to run up and down stairs to the basement, Ouellette said.
The communications center also lacks a break room and bathrooms within earshot that would allow a dispatcher to take a break and still hear the calls.
Dispatchers often pull 16-hour shifts to cover for someone who is out.
The police and fire dispatchers sit so close to one another, calls can drown each other out. During the Nov. 22, 2006, Danversport chemical plant blast, the center was flooded with 400 calls in the first hour, and the outdated infrastructure made it hard to make outgoing calls or to add more dispatchers to handle calls.
“During the blast, it was really underscored how difficult it was for multiple dispatchers to be working” at the same time, Norris said.
Ouellette said the blast highlighted the need for a townwide emergency operations center. After the blast, officials huddled in the town manager’s conference room upstairs in Town Hall, but as decisions were made, it took too long to get word out to those at the scene.
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Ethan Forman, staff writer, The Eagle-Tribune
DANVERS — At the Danvers dispatch center, the radio consoles are so old that the manufacturer cannot guarantee it can find replacement parts, police Chief Neil Ouellette said.
Because the police station is so cramped, all of the station’s computer servers and radio networking infrastructure, along with phone lines and a battery backup system, sit in a basement that floods from time to time. And upstairs, civilian dispatchers are crowded into a space designed before they had computer monitors, sometimes pulling 16-hour shifts to cover when someone is out.
All those are among the reasons the town has been exploring ways to share a regional dispatch center. And now that the efforts have failed, it’s creating a sense of urgency about improving the situation.
Danvers could have joined the regional 911 center now under construction on the grounds of Middleton Jail, as neighboring Beverly, Wenham, Middleton and Topsfield have done. But selectmen balked at that, fearing it would create a large bureaucracy at the jail, along with soaring cost to cities and towns if state grants to subsidize the center dried up.
Instead, the town teamed with Salem and Marblehead to seek state money to study the possibility of a shared communications center. Late last month, however, Town Manager Wayne Marquis told selectmen that the three communities failed to win the grant. The state said it was already funding regional communications centers in Lynn and Swampscott and the regional center at Middleton Jail.
“They were reluctant to fund another situation,” Ouellette said.
Now, officials say, deficiencies within the Police Department’s communications center have reached a point where something has to be done.
In the short term, the town is in the process of upgrading its emergency radio equipment to comply with a Federal Communications Commission narrowband frequency requirement by Jan. 1, 2013. Assistant Town Manager Diane Norris said some radio equipment predates her 23 years working for the town.
But Ouellette said it is also time to address space needs within the police station.
When the station at 120 Ash St. was dedicated in 1977, there were no computers in the building, he said. Now, computer servers and other technology are crowded into the basement, which lacks climate controls to accommodate the high-tech equipment. This sensitive equipment also sits beneath water and sewer pipes.
Someone has seen it fit to prop a server on an old wooden chair.
In March 2010, the basement flooded, and water splashed on the black computer cabinet that houses E-911 equipment, shorting it out, Ouellette said.
Upstairs, in the first-floor communications center, two civilian dispatchers sit side by side, separated by a desk, in a cramped room filled with screens at varying heights.
“When this room was designed, there was no need for computer monitors,” Ouellette said.
There is no office space for communications. When the communications director, Richard Beaulieu, has to make backup tapes, he has to run up and down stairs to the basement, Ouellette said.
The communications center also lacks a break room and bathrooms within earshot that would allow a dispatcher to take a break and still hear the calls.
Dispatchers often pull 16-hour shifts to cover for someone who is out.
The police and fire dispatchers sit so close to one another, calls can drown each other out. During the Nov. 22, 2006, Danversport chemical plant blast, the center was flooded with 400 calls in the first hour, and the outdated infrastructure made it hard to make outgoing calls or to add more dispatchers to handle calls.
“During the blast, it was really underscored how difficult it was for multiple dispatchers to be working” at the same time, Norris said.
Ouellette said the blast highlighted the need for a townwide emergency operations center. After the blast, officials huddled in the town manager’s conference room upstairs in Town Hall, but as decisions were made, it took too long to get word out to those at the scene.