Public Safety Committee

Minutes of the Public Safety Committee of the Gardner City Council – April 2, 2013 Meeting Held at 7 p.m. on April 2, 2013. Members Present: Chairman Graves and Councillor Dembrosky and Councillor Gravel. 1. Health Department. Bernie Sullivan reported that they are collecting yard waste this week, and that the State’s medical marijuana regulations were released; not much more of an update this time around. 2. Building Department. Jeff Cooke reported that 24 Wright Street will be torn down, and that we received a grant to pay for that, and that we just need a building survey prior to the demolition. He reported that the old Gardner Cinema building on Parker Street will be the subject of a Tax Court action within 2 months – the City would like to tear down the back portion of that building (the tall part), as it has no roof and is not safe. 3. Taxi Ordinance. The Taxi Ordinance created by the Safety Committee, with the input from the Police Department, came back from City Legal Department, with a few minor changes. Changes discussed, with a motion from C. Gravel that we recommend that the Ordinance be sent to second printing by the City Council, with the Legal Department’s changes included, seconded by C. Dembrosky, all in favor. 4. Fire Dept. Chief reported that most recent hiree graduated from the Academy and is now a member of the Department as a full firefighter. He commented on an article that was printed in the local press about emergency medical dispatch services. He said that in July there was a great increase in medical calls going into the Fire Department for assistance that the Dept. “had no business going on.” He explained some misunderstanding with a “red dot” system (which is a card system as the dispatch office at the P.D.), and the red dot cards were type of calls that dispatch had to relay to the FD. He explained that he had a meeting with our Legal Department, Laurie Lyon (Dispatch), the State representative handing emergency issues involving 911 calls (a person called “Mona”) – and that they straightened out the issues, including that the red dots would not be allowed due to the fact that we cannot alter the system used by the vendor we use in dispatch (Power Phone) or we will be subjected to liability (and that the red dots were taken off until Laurie gets in touch with Power Phone). He went on to explain that the law changed that resulted in Fire Fighters not being considered “trained” to take the calls without new training, and that there were grants for that training, but we didn’t do it. Since the meeting they all had, the calls decreased 55% to the F.D. C. Dembrosky questioned what is it that there still must be a firefighter at the front desk answering the phone, if the Council approved an additional dispatcher in order to eliminate that. The Chief said it was “risk management” and that the second-leading cause of firefighters’ deaths is the travel to and from incidents (due to car accidents). He finished up by saying that the brush fire truck (#10) is “going to die.” Motion to Adjourn by C. Gravel, C. Dembrosky seconded, all in favor. Meeting adjourned at 7:20 p.m.