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Our Top Story of this Week: North Providence to Assume Fire Dispatch for Pawtucket
(Each week we feature the story of the week with the most readers – this week it was the “soft announcement” that North Providence will use their new Public Safety Complex to do fire dispatch for Pawtucket – and they are prepared to do so for 1-2 other cities)
“Regionalization is our salvation,” said North Providence Mayor Charles Lombardi, quietly announcing the initiative, crediting Mayor Grebien, and saying that a formal announcement will come in a few weeks.
The informal announcement came during an interview with Gene Valicenti on the WPRO morning news on Veterans Day.
The mayor said this regionalized service between the city and the town will amount to a $250,000 to $300,000 savings. It was unclear how that savings will be realized. Staffing and equipment costs for Pawtucket were not mentioned.
Valicenti was discussing how “regionalization” could be a solution to many of Rhode Island’s economic difficulties, to which Lombardi agreed, noting that more assistance from his town’s new complex to other municipalities may be forthcoming, saying that they could handle dispatch for one, perhaps two, more Fire Departments.
About the North Providence Public Safety Complex
On August 13th, the North Providence Fire Department/Headquarters moved into the new Public Safety Complex on Mineral Spring Avenue. Located there are the Fire Administrative offices, including the Department Chief, Fire Prevention, Emergency Medical Services, the Division of Training and Safety, and Emergency Management.
The building is 58,000-square-feet and was built with a portion of the town’s share of a $500 million settlement with Google for using marketing techniques that allowed users of Google AdWords to illegally sell non-FDA-approved prescription drugs to American consumers.
The Complex includes an emergency operations center where police and firefighters can gather with other town departments and representatives of utility companies to monitor emergency situations.
Regionalization of 39 city and town hierarchy of departments such as schools, police, fire, etc. has long been discussed as a way for Rhode Island, with one million people, roughly the population of Seattle, Washington, to consolidate for improvement and cost-savings. As Valicenti noted, 39 city and town “everythings” is “a bit ridiculous – and there has to be a better way – one that makes more sense”.
RINewsToday.com reached out to the city of Pawtucket, which said they are still working on specifics and it would be premature to comment at this point.