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May St. proposal:
Protecting the protectors
By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
PUTNAM — The proposed purchase of the commercial property at 70 May St. would go a long way toward protecting the emergency equipment and the emergency personnel that protect the town, according to officials.
Scott Belleville, Emergency Management director and fire marshal, said the 7,500-square-foot building owned by the Providence and Worcester railroad, would provide a home for the EMS/ambulance crews and all their equipment as well as a safe, secure and out-of-the-weather place for Emergency Management equipment. Putnam is also the base for some of the Division of Emergency Management and Homeland Security Region 4 equipment.
The Putnam Police Department and the Putnam Fire Department are not included in the proposal because they are Special Services District entities. Putnam ambulance is a contract service.
The town vote on the “not to exceed $900,000” purchase is Aug. 5.
Asked where the funding would come from, Town Administrator Elaine Sistare said the Board of Finance has the following accounts available: the undesignated account, the ash landfill account and capital funds. There would be no need for bonding, she said.
Mayor Barney Seney said if the proposal was approved at the Aug. 5 town meeting it would take four to six weeks to firm up figures including: negotiating a price, appraisals and surveys for the property, buildout costs and approaching the Planning and Zoning Commission on the project. “If Planning and Zoning turns it down, it’s done (over),” he said. The sale would be contingent on all of those figures/approvals.
When they have their figures they would go to the Board of Finance about the finances. If the Board of Finance recommends using the undesignated or the ash landfill accounts, Seney said, it would have to go before a town referendum for approval. If they recommend using the capital fund, “we would check with an attorney as to whether a referendum would be needed,” Seney said.
Both Sistare and Belleville said there is no estimate at this time on buildout costs, should the proposal be approved. Some items that would be needed include: an emergency generator, designated male and female restrooms and the need for a sleeping area for on-duty staff. Additional fire alarm systems would be required for the staff spaces.
First-responder needs have been haunting the town for a long time. The town (not district) had put in for a federal Community Investment Fund grant for $4.6 million (with some town matching funds) for an emergency center to be built on the property of the former armory. Belleville said “We’re not likely to get that (grant) this round.”
Using the former armory building, according to Seney, would “cost a significant amount of money.” There are environmental issues to deal with, and it would have to be brought up to code. In addition, it’s smaller.
For help for the EMS/ambulance the town put in for a federal grant for $517,500 through U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal’s office. The grant would be $284,625 and the town match amount would be $232,875, Belleville said. “We’ve crossed two hurdles for that already so I think we would get it.” He said he didn’t think it would be any problem to transfer the destination of the grant to May Street. He added it would have “zero impact on taxes.”
Belleville said he heard about the sale of the May Street property “in passing.”
For EMS/ambulance, Belleville said the crew is sleeping on couches. Separate male and female quarters are required. “They cannot decontaminate” after calls (i.e. bedbugs, etc.) which is an OSHA requirement. May Street would have enough space to store four ambulances and, he said, eight people need sleeping quarters.
“It makes sense to get them out of there (their current place on Church Street),” he said.
If the proposed purchase is approved, EMS would use 4,000 square feet and emergency management would use the remaining 3,500 square feet, Belleville said.
As far as Putnam Emergency Management and Region 4, Putnam is the “custodial party” for some Region 4 emergency equipment. Belleville said he was always borrowing from other towns and about five years ago, began pushing for Putnam to be the custodial party for Region 4. Because Putnam stores some of Region 4’s equipment “we have the ability to do things in minutes that other towns can’t,” Belleville said. That equipment protects the town and even helps promote business, he added.
He said it “makes sense to take care of what we have; to keep it working and inside and secure and out of the weather is important.” The emergency operations center should move out of the Municipal Complex. “Moving it to its own center,” he said “opens up tons of grants.”
He added Putnam needs proper storage for shelter supplies. “We have PPE in a Conex box. It’s 120 degrees inside the box. What is that doing to rubber gloves?”
“We need safe storage for 50 beds, 50 cots. All our shelter supplies,” he said.
As far as Region 4 equipment, Belleville said there is a trailer (which is a command center), two message boards, light tower, traffic trailer, 10 generators and a support trailer (which can be a portable hospital in minutes).
In addition to the inside storage/protection, Belleville said the May Street property has about ½ acre around the building with a secure fence around it. It might be possible to store highway equipment there, too.
In the unlikely event there is a train sitting on the tracks when there is an emergency, the emergency vehicles just go around the other way. Belleville measured difference in response times and it added “1 to 2 minutes, tops.”
“This is a win win for Putnam," Belleville added.
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