Public Safety (Subcommittee of the City Council)

PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE MINUTES Wednesday September 12, 2012 Occum Fire Department 7:00 P.M. Committee Members Present Alderman Mark Bettencourt Alderwoman Sofee Noblick Alderman H. Tucker Braddock Jr. Administration and Staff Present Alan H. Bergren, City Manager Chief Frank Blanchard, Yantic Fire Department Chief Aaron Westervelt, Laurel Hill Fire Department Gene Arters, Director OEM Peter Camp, Norwich Police Lieutenant Deputy Chief Bob LaChapelle, Occum Fire Department Volunteer/Central Fire Departments and Others Ron Stolz, Yantic Fire Department Jillian Corbin, St Vincent de Paul Place Mark V. Sicusz, Norwich Fire Department Shane Dupuis, Taftville Fire Department Bill Eyberse, Yantic Fire Department Jake Eyberse, Troop 15, Franklin I. Call to Order – Quorum Alderman Mark Bettencourt called the meeting to order at 7:02 p.m. It was determined a quorum was present. II. Approval of Minutes - Minutes of July 11, 2012. Alderwoman Sofee Noblick motioned to approve the June 13, 2012 minutes, seconded by Alderman Mark Bettencourt. All in favor, with Alderman H. Tucker Braddock Jr. abstaining, the motion passed. III. Correspondence 1. An email from Chris LaRose, NPU, requesting to be able to present an update on the Fiber Optic changeover and get feedback on the new NPU Control Room design sketch. 2. Occum Generator Bid Invitation – Mark mentions that the bids are due October 3 rd and there is going to be a pre-bid meeting here (Occum) on the 26th. 3. Regional Hazard Mitigation Plan Approval Schedule that the City has to adopt once FEMA approves it – Alan Bergren states that the City has completed making its corrections and changes. FEMA knows that the City is pushing to get this done as quickly as possible. 4. Standpipe Master Agreement (without appendices) IV. Citizen Comment None Public Safety Meeting Minutes September 12, 2012 Page 2 V. New Business a. Standpipe Master Agreement – Alderman Mark Bettencourt opens the floor to City Manager Alan Bergren. He asks if the Fire Chiefs could look over the documentation to check it for accuracy, errors or omissions. Alan Bergren explains that this is a renewal that was unfortunately sent out without the list of bridges and locations for these standpipes. He asks how many the City has. Chief Blanchard replies that they are not at every intersection but there are a few. The testing, care, and maintenance of them has fallen to the Municipality Fire Departments. The costs of testing care and maintenance are minimal. They are very well constructed of galvanized iron pipe and are used to convey water from one area to another. Yantic has a few. There may be 5 or 6 in the City. He recommends signing the agreement. b. Chris LaRose update about changing over from Copper to Fiber Optic. The updated schedule for completion. The parts list has been given the parts list and explained that it is a State bid and he’s going through all the pricing and bids. The new scheduled completion is approximately the middle to late February. Lead times for parts cannot be changed so they hope to be able to start up again by the end of September. c. Chris LaRose information on the new NPU Control Room design sketch. Chris states that there was a meeting to discuss the new control room. They are thinking of moving the EOC into there as well. While it is still in the design phase is the best time for input about layout and setup. There is going to be a large kitchen and muster room which will be very beneficial during emergencies. There are meeting rooms and work stations that will always be set up and ready to go for training and meetings. Talking about 911 backup potential. This new building will also give controlled access and additional parking. Alderman Mark Bettencourt moves to take a recess to look over the building plans. The meeting was in recess from 7:20 until 7:35. Alderman Mark Bettencourt called the meeting back to order and asks Chris LaRose how much the ner generator will cost. Chris LaRose replies that it will be about $350,000 just to purchase the new generator. They are diesel and thankfully NPU has 2 20,000 tanks that feed their Natural gas turbines so they should have ample supply in cases where they need to use the generator. Alderman H. Tucker Bettencourt Jr. asks what is going to happen to the old generator. Chris LaRose states that the old generators were CMEK units and the new generator is 650 kw and those are 2 ½ megawatts. They would not be the most efficient to use. They are looking at another site for use. Public Safety Meeting Minutes September 12, 2012 Page 3 VI. Old Business a. Soup Kitchen Relocation Alderman Mark Bettencourt asks if there is any news or information to report. Jillian Corbin, Executive Director of St. Vincent de Paul Place, states that things have been going well since 7/5/2012. Everyone has assimilated very well and she is still happy to reply as complaints come in. However, everything seems quiet. They have had their services while 5 funerals were going on. The call history doesn’t show much additional activity in the neighborhood. The Police do come through often but not always for calls. For some of the neighbors, seeing the cruisers makes them nervous but they are not there for calls, they are coming through to keep an eye on things. Alderman Mark Bettencourt asks if the bussing ever happened. Jillian Corbin replies that Alderman Braddock has followed up on this. The streets are too narrow for the busses to navigate through the neighborhood. She believes that the old Senior Center busses may be a viable option. Also, the Salvation Army has two new captains and they have a van they are eager to help. Sargent Peter Camp states he has evidence that the call rate has not increased due to St Vincent de Paul Place. Last year the same time frame (July 1 to September 1) there were 15 calls versus 30 calls this year. Early morning calls are not St. Vincent calls. There were only 3 calls for service that were disturbances that can’t be attributed to St. Vincent. A lot of the 30 calls were due to tenants on Lower Cliff Street. He has spoken to as many neighbors as he could. He has been trying to ease their minds. He also found that a garbage complaint was actually the neighbors themselves. It seems, to him, that the users of St. Vincent are acting better because they are in a neighborhood. It is as though they are trying to respect the nei ghbors. There have been no pan-handling calls at either the Church or the Funeral Home. VII. Other Sargent Peter Camp wishes to discuss Community Policing. There are 6 officers being slotted for this. There are 10 showing interest in the positions. Everyone who becomes part of the Community Policing force has to have at least 4 years as a Police Officer. There is a target start date of 10/28. There are 3 areas slated for them – Dow ntown, Greenville, and Taftville. They will be 2 men teams doing various types of patrol. There will be park and walk (within close distance to their vehicle), bicycles, dress down to blend in. There is a survey that has been sent out to get input about Norwich needs and hopefully they will be able to start on their target date. VIII. Adjournment Alderwoman Sofee Noblick motioned to adjourn, seconded by Alderman H. Tucker Braddock, Jr. All in favor the meeting was adjourned at 7:52 p.m. Respectfully submitted by Christine Averna