Chatham FD To Join County Dispatch System

CHATHAM – The town’s fire and emergency medical services dispatching will be transferred to the Barnstable County Sheriff’s Office regional emergency communications center by the middle of next year.

The select board on Tuesday authorized Town Manager Jill Goldsmith to sign an agreement with the county agency and endorsed a budget appropriation to cover the cost of the service.

The change was endorsed by both Goldsmith and Fire Chief Justin Tavano, who said it would improve the efficiency of the department by freeing up personnel who currently perform dispatching duties.

Under the agreement, the Barnstable County Sheriff’s Office (BCSO) communications center at Joint Base Cape Cod in Buzzard’s Bay, which currently answers the town’s 911 calls, will handle all of the department’s dispatching functions. All emergency calls to the fire department will go to the BSCO; calls to the business line will still go to the Depot Road fire station. 

“I think we’re in a great position to make this change now,” Tavano said. The change won’t impact the department’s existing staffing or lower its budget. “The value is going to be taking that one firefighter per shift and being able to deploy them into the field so they can provide firefighting and EMS services to the community,” he said.

Each of the department’s four 24-hour shifts includes seven personnel, one of whom is assigned as dispatcher. If there are simultaneous emergency calls, the dispatcher must respond and another staff member must be called in to handle dispatching. 

“It can leave the supervisor of the shift scrambling sometimes to fill that role,” Tavano said. The number of emergency calls to the department has increased annually (except for a dip in 2020 due to COVID), he said, and that trend shows no signs of changing. Having dispatch duties handled by the county would free up one firefighter per shift to respond to calls.

Currently, the sheriff’s office provides fire and EMS dispatch services for Harwich, Brewster, Orleans and five other Cape towns as well as Joint Base Cape Cod’s fire department. It also maintains and dispatches the Barnstable County fire mutual aid system, connects ambulances with hospitals through the centralized medical emergency direction (CMED) system and coordinates medical flights and Coast Guard air and sea rescue operations. The 30-member staff handles tens of thousands of emergency calls annually.

The switch won’t save the town money; it will likely cost somewhere between $55,000 and $100,000 annually. However, freeing up one firefighter per shift is the equivalent of $400,000 to $600,000 in salary and benefits, according to Tavano. Minimal incidentals and software upgrades to the Chatham station will be required for the switch, the cost of which can be absorbed in the operating budget, he added.

Tavano said the high volume of calls now handled by the sheriff’s office “leads to expertise” among its staff, whereas Chatham’s personnel are firefighters, EMTs and paramedics who receive dispatch training but don’t perform the function fulltime. Tavano said he is confident in the service the county agency provides. 

“The staff at the county, this is their sole responsibility,” he said. “This is what they do, this is what they train for.” Using the county for dispatching will lead to a more standardized and consistent approach to calls and improve communications with the public, in the department and among area departments, he said. 

In a memo to the select board, Tavano and Goldsmith wrote, “With the county dispatch already providing fire and EMS dispatch services for our primary mutual aid partners, transitioning services to BCSO will strengthen situational awareness for responders throughout the Lower Cape and dispatchers will be better prepared to maintain a common operating picture during large scale or complex incidents, or during times when multiple communities’ resources are simultaneously overwhelmed.”

The proposal doesn’t impact police dispatching, which will continue to be done by dispatchers at the police station. Police Chief Michael Anderson said he supported the move for the fire department but is not ready for the police department to make a similar move. He said he will be closely watching a joint dispatch effort being made by the Barnstable, Yarmouth and Sandwich police departments.

The BCSO charges a per capita fee for dispatching services, which was $8.88 this year. Based on the 2020 census, the annual cost to Chatham would be $55,554. That includes state subsidies, the full amount of which is not set for fiscal year 2026, which begins July 1. Tavano said the cost will likely be somewhere between $100,117 and $55,000. That will also be offset with the cost of CMED services, which are currently billed to the town on a per-call basis. Last year the total fee was $8,202.

Thomas Ashe, BCSO’s chief of emergency communications, said the state funding numbers are expected in a week or so.

Chatham was approached by the sheriff’s office about outsourcing dispatch in 2012; at the time, the office “did not yet have a proven track record” with direct dispatch to local towns, so the town passed, Tavano and Goldsmith wrote in the memo. More than a decade later, they are confident the BCSO has the trained personnel and experience to enhance the department’s dispatching function.

Currently Eastham and Provincetown are transitioning their fire/EMS dispatching duties to the sheriff’s office. Chatham’s transition is likely to take place between the end of the first quarter and early in the second quarter of next year, with the target of being in place by June 30. Tavano said there will be opportunities to re-evaluate the system; the agreement between the town and sheriff’s office has an opt-out clause, allowing either party to end the contract with 90 days written notice. 

The board’s endorsement of the agreement to join the county dispatch system paves the way for a kick-off meeting tentatively scheduled for Dec. 10, Tavano said. The department will then reconcile policies and procedures, coordinate facility and software modifications, and conduct community outreach and staff training.