ems pg 1 10-10-24
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EMS:
Pursuing
2 paths
for help
By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
PUTNAM — No the town hasn’t forgotten the EMS facility woes. Yes, the EMS Ad Hoc Committee is at work.
The committee, made up of Mayor Barney Seney, Selectmen Roy Simmons and Gloria Marion, with help from EMS Chief Administrator Tammy Scpyrka, Fire Marshal and Emergency Management Director Scott Belleville and more, has been meeting often. According to ex officio member and Town Administrator Elaine Sistare, the Water Pollution Control Authority, Building Inspector Chad Sessums and Bruce Fitzback of the Land Use Department are also being asked for their input.
While the ad hoc committee is studying the interim and permanent solutions for the severe space problems and inadequate facilities at the EMS building, the town also hired an architect/engineer, CHA Consulting Inc. of Rocky Hill, to come up with permanent recommendations, including conceptual plans, scope, plus costs. That firm is slated to make its recommendations to the town in late November, Sistare said.
The town’s approach is two pronged — investigating the interim solution of renting or buying a temporary building for EMS and another path, continuing toward permanent upgrade.
Much of the path choice hangs on the facilities study.
CHA has been through the building. Sistare said there are a lot of walls that need to be reconstructed.
She said the ad hoc so far has investigated what the facility needs. Scpyrka and Belleville have made presentations and the group toured the 63-year-old facility on Church Street. Proper facilities needed include: showers, clean and “dirty” laundry (when they return from a call with contamination), sleeping and break areas, office, kitchen, conference table, men’s and women’s showers and a decontamination site, plus proper ventilation and more.
They toured the East Putnam Fire Department which she described as “beautiful.” The decontamination area, the showers, washers show they “got what we need” and they also liked the ventilation and overhead doors and the fact that the doors on opposite sides of the building allow drive through.
The committee also visited the Moosup ambulance with its modern rooms, break areas and facilities, she said.
She said the committee is also checking a temporary solution that would include a mobile home-type building. She said in August a bare bones temporary building was priced at $500,000. She told selectmen Oct. 7 “we can go simple and stay close to $100,000 or go bigger and double that cost.”
“We’re in the information gathering right now,” she said. She expects the next steps will be much clearer when the engineer’s report comes in in November. She added a decision will be made by the end of the year, per the federal government deadline, all American Rescue Plan Act funds must be “committed” (signed contract) by Dec. 31. She said the town still has $60,000 to $80,000 in uncommitted ARPA funding.
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