U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton has selected the town’s planned emergency operations center for inclusion in the federal government’s fiscal year 2025 spending bill.
Moulton has requested $1 million for the center, which the town is creating to enable the Police Department, Fire Department, and other emergency responders to better serve the community.
At an event held at the Merritt Center on Thursday, Moulton highlighted the town’s need for the center.
“I’m very proud to represent small towns like this,” Moulton said. “We want to be a resource to you and we want to be a good sounding board for you for ideas and requests.”
The center will be built near the headquarters of the Police and Fire departments and Town Hall.
“This project is an appropriate use of taxpayer funds because it will enhance and enable the Police Department, Fire Department, and emergency responders to better serve and protect the public during emergency or disaster events, including through coordinated and enhanced incident management, response time, and recovery efficiency,” Moulton wrote in a letter to the House Committee on Appropriations.
Fire Chief Glenn Davis said the center should not be housed in a police or fire station.
“Those are the places that do emergency work during an emergency or crisis, you need to be separated from that,” Davis said.
Additionally, Davis said, the facility will use state-of-the-art emergency-operation technology and have radio capabilities. The Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency has visited the site, and the town and MEMA agreed that the facility needs to be able to use radio to communicate throughout the state.
Davis is also the town’s emergency management director, while Police Capt. Christopher DeCarlo serves as deputy emergency management director. The pair said the facility will be staffed with people who are currently working for the Police and Fire departments.
“When I spoke with MEMA about their advocacy on it, that really bolstered it,” Tom Arsenault, the regional director for Moulton’s office, said. “Getting letters from them as well as the local delegation. It seems that there’s really a lot of buy-in from the entire community for it. So I think as it stands right now, we’re in a good place.”
