Public Safety (Subcommittee of the City Council)

PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE MINUTES Wednesday January 9, 2013 Taftville Volunteer Fire Department 7:00 P.M. Committee Members Present Alderman Mark Bettencourt Alderman H. Tucker Braddock Jr. Alderwoman Sofee Noblick Administration and Staff Present Alan H. Bergren, City Manager Chief Aaron Westervelt, Laurel Hill Fire Department Chief Scandariato, Norwich Fire Department Chief Tim Jencks, Taftville Fire Department Chief Frank Blanchard, Yantic Fire Department Deputy Chief Bob LaChapelle, Occum Fire Department Deputy Chief Tom Jencks, Taftville Fire Department Patrick Daley, East Great Plains / Norwich Police Department Volunteer/Central Fire Departments and Others Chris LaRose, Norwich Public Utilities BJ Herz, Yantic Fire Department Damian Rickard, American Ambulance Ron Stolz, Yantic Fire Department 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. Alderman Bettencourt paused the meeting for a moment of reflective silence for Jonathan Ley who is going home tomorrow from the Hospital. He was shot several times during an incident and is thankfully recovering. II. Approval of Minutes - Minutes of December 12, 2012. Alderman H. Tucker Braddock Jr. motioned to approve the December 12, 2012 minutes, seconded by Alderwoman Sofee Noblick. All in favor the motion passed unanimously. III. Correspondence None IV. Citizen Comment None Public Safety Meeting Minutes January 9, 2013 Page 2 V. New Business a. Christopher LaRose from NPU brings to the attention of the committee and public that school busses are hitting phone and cable loops (fiberoptic). The emergency response both times was that someone (from the public) pulled the wires off the bus. They did not wait for the Fire Department or Police Department or Norwich Public Utilities. For safety it is important to ensure that the wires are not live or touching live wires. Chief Scandariato says he will look into having this message and others like it added to the scrolling messages on the City of Norwich website. b. Alderman Mark Bettencourt brings up school safety in light of what happened in Newtown and the incident on Monday that put Jonathan Ley in the hospital. It is impossible for an officer to walk in and be prepared for that. Pat Daley of NPD states that the officers do what they have to do. It is a dangerous job. Alderwoman Sofee Noblick asks if the crime scene from Monday has been released. Pat Daley replies that yes, it was released around 5 or 6 last night. Maintenance is working to clean up the scene and it is all boarded up. Chief Scandariato asks if it is possible to get a report on the impact the evacuees had on the shelter. Alderman Mark Bettencourt is going to ask Alan Bergren to ask Gene Arters for that report. VI. Old Business a. Update on the Fiber Optic Changeover: Chris LaRose of NPU states that most of the equipment has been received and expecting the rest next week. Working on possible February changeover. b. 395 turn around request update. Lieutenant Izzarelli from Montville believes that maybe asking for one at a time would be better. He is starting an email campaign. Pat Daley, the best advice, the only way to get it n is by an act of legislation. It is time to rally our new legislators. Alderman H. Tucker Braddock Jr. asks if perhaps rallying with Montville would be effective. Public Safety Meeting Minutes January 9, 2013 Page 3 Pat Daley adds that maybe it can get added to another bill. Also, there seems to be a different excuse each time they say no to the turn-arounds. Alderman Mark Bettencourt asks if there is any documentation about accidents and calls in that section of 395. Pat Daley states they try not to close down both sides of the highway but they still can’t get there quickly. The turn around is needed. Chief Jencks states that Norwich has their own statistics but the Troop has the full stats. Alderman H. Tucker Braddock Jr. asks if American can please provide a report too. Damian Rickard replies that he will. VII. Other a. Alderman H. Tucker Braddock Jr. discusses the Council of Governments. They are in the process of trying to come up with an idea of how much and the type of equipment we have to see if it can be used across town lines (things, people, resources, everything). City Manager Alan Bergren relays that the concept is to reach out to every department to see what is available. It is driven by Homeland Security Funds. Smaller towns want better deploy rates. Alderman Mark Bettencourt states that it could be more responsibility and more help. There’s room on a regional basis for use of resources, regionalization. Alderman H. Tucker Braddock Jr. states that an example is that multiple orders from many departments at once can bring down the price. Chief Jencks believes this could possibly overextend Norwich. Alderman Mark Bettencourt states that in the case of mutual aid we already do this so it may be a benefit in the long run. But we don’t want to be burdened with other town problems because they don’t want to get their own apparatus needs. No town should get a free ride on our backs. b. Pat Daley extends a thank you to all people and agencies who assisted Monday night. Alderman Mark Bettencourt states that that incident is rare but it was great how everyone pulled together. City Manager Alan Bergren feels that some people are thinking that Norwich is not safe. This could have happened anywhere. It is a safe city. Anything can happen anywhere. Public Safety Meeting Minutes January 9, 2013 Page 4 Alderman Mark Bettencourt believes there are things the State needs to address. Mental Health institutions have closed and left nowhere for them to go so they are on the streets and living next door to us all. Alderwoman Sofee Noblick asks hasn’t the Police Department created crisis intervention. Pat Daley replies yes. They have crisis intervention and mental health checks. Alderman Mark Bettencourt asks if he was on any radar at all. Pat Daley replies that he was not on the radar. It shows that anything can happen. Alderman Mark Bettencourt feels that it was a bad scenario all around. Pat Daley agrees. c. Alderman H. Tucker Braddock Jr. says he is happy to see everyone (all the houses) here. It is encouraging to see such great participation. Thank you. VIII. Adjournment Alderwoman Sofee Noblick motions to adjourn seconded by Alderman H. Tucker Braddock, Jr. All in favor the meeting was adjourned at 7:39 p.m. Respectfully submitted by Christine Averna