Emergency consolidation
The town of Gorham is considering consolidating its dispatching call center with a neighboring one in either Windham (the county’s) or Westbrook (the city’s) in response to a mandate from the state to reduce the number of emergency call centers in the state.
Although this as a good move for Gorham that would save money and keep the town in compliance with a state mandate, dispatchers have raised some important objections that shouldn’t be ignored.
They have pointed out that the savings achieved could come at a cost in the quality of service. Dispatchers who are less familiar with the people and landmarks of the town could potentially be answering emergency and non-emergency calls. Dispatchers with a better understanding of their surroundings can pass on better information to the paramedics, firefighters and police responding to emergencies.
These concerns should be addressed in any consolidation negotiations. Although they can’t be completely allayed – citizens will lose some degree of their dispatchers’ personal service in consolidation – they can be alleviated somewhat.
Any consolidated dispatching center would no doubt want to hire dispatchers from both or all of the communities it serves. The training for anyone who works in a consolidated dispatch center should include becoming familiar with the entire area covered. Those negotiating the contract for consolidating should also weigh heavily the suggestions of the dispatchers, who know best how to maintain the quality of service they now provide.
Getting along
As the School Department and City Administration in Westbrook turn their budgets over to the School Committee and City Council, respectively, it appears an unfortunate relationship has developed between the two sides of the city’s government – an adversarial one.
Superintendent Stan Sawyer told us this week he feels as though the School Department has been under “attack” from the city, although he declined to say by whom or in what way.
City Administrator Jerre Bryant, however, said he felt Sawyer’s defensiveness was unwarranted. “No one’s out to get anybody,” he told us.
Adversarial relationships between city and town governments and school governments are nothing new. School boards and town or city councils often square off over budgets. Many people expected such a situation in Westbrook this year, in part because Mayor Bruce Chuluda indicated as early as last fall that he intended to call for a flat-funded budget – a call the School Department has resisted.
It’s important, however, for everyone involved to maintain perspective. If negotiations over the budget become hostile and personal, the city, the schools and the citizens will suffer for it.
Everyone involved in the process is theoretically working toward the same goal – quality schools and city services delivered efficiently. School boards aren’t advocacy groups working on behalf of kids and spending more money on schools, and mayors and city councils aren’t advocacy groups working on behalf of citizens who think their taxes are too high. Taxpayers, many of whom have children or grandchildren in the schools, elect members of both boards to represent their interests.
It’s in everyone’s interest to have good schools. Many of the children learning in the schools today will someday return to their hometown to contribute as adults. And, the citizens of any community should give the children who grow up there an education that will serve them well as they compete against other adults from across the country and around the world for jobs.
It’s also in everyone’s interest to keep taxes low. It affords longtime members of a community the opportunity to stay there. It encourages economic development, which generates more tax revenue. And, it leaves citizens with a little extra money to save or spend, which helps keep the economy going and ensures jobs will be waiting for students when they graduate.
Brendan Moran, editor
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