MATTAPOISETT — From a regional school district to summer tourists, Marion, Mattapoisett and Rochester are no strangers to sharing.

Following discussions at a joint Select Board meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 9, the towns may one day share even more — such as regional fire and police dispatchers, department of public works equipment and town project bids.

Regional dispatch

Since July 1, 2022, the town of Rochester has utilized a regional dispatch center based out of Duxbury to coordinate its fire and police department. But according to Rochester Select Board member Adam Murphy, the town has “seen shortfalls as far as communication goes and our people getting what they need as far as dispatching goes.”

Rochester Select Board Chair Paul Ciaburri suggested that Marion or Mattapoisett take on Rochester’s police and fire dispatching needs.

Currently, said Murphy, Rochester first responders communicate through a dispatcher based in Duxbury, which can hamper communication.

“If Mattapoisett or Marion chose to pick us up and take us along, our officers are talking to people they work with every day … they’re all talking the same language,” said Murphy. “When you say Witch’s Rock or Hiller Bog, [Duxbury dispatchers] have no idea what that means.”

Rochester’s contract with the Duxbury dispatch center will last until July 1, 2024, according to Rochester Town Counsel Elizabeth Lydon.

According to Murphy, benefits are in store for any town that picks up Rochester’s dispatch needs.

“The hosting community that takes on a regionalization would take on [state] grant funding along with the fee we’re currently paying [to the Duxbury dispatch center],” said Murphy.

Mattapoisett Select Board member Jordan Collyer said that before any decisions can be made, all six of the towns’ police and fire chiefs would need to sit down and discuss the plan.

Special equipment

Each towns’ Department of Public Works has a list of special equipment it would like to have. With an agreement between Marion, Mattapoisett and Rochester, those lists could get shorter — or could at least be split between the three towns.

According to Mattapoisett’s Collyer, this could be done through an intermunicipal agreement.

Rochester Town Administrator Glenn Cannon said that Rochester’s approximately $1.2 million capital plan includes about $1 million of requests from the Rochester Department of Public Works.

“I do think this is something we should look at,” said Cannon. “I imagine your towns are similar. There’s probably a ‘want’ list a mile long.”

Each town plans to reach out to their respective Department of Public Works officials and get a list of required equipment and to gauge interest in a possible inter-municipal agreement.

Mattapoisett Select Board member Tyler Macallister said that Mattapoisett Highway Surveyor Garrett Bauer could compile a list of “the things he’d like to have and maybe Marion or Rochester have them. It could sweeten the pot about getting into that agreement.”

It’s up to our highway surveyor,” said Rochester Select Board member Brad Morse. “Are we in favor of it? Probably, absolutely, but we’ll support what he wants.”

Marion Town Administrator Geoff Gorman got in touch with Marion Highway Surveyor Jody Dickerson to determine his department’s needs.

“[It’s] expensive for a single town to buy a brand new loader, a street sweeper or a bucket truck,” said Marion Select Board member Randy Parker. “I don’t know if it would be similar to fire or police mutual aid.”

Coordinating bids

Marion Select Board Chair Toby Burr raised the idea of coordinating bidding processes for road repairs.

“We would coordinate it so that the Tri-Town could put out a bid … we could possibly get more bidders and more interest,” said Burr. “But it would take quite a bit of coordination.”

When a town starts a roadway project, or any other large-scale municipal project, it must solicit bids from qualified contractors.

“If you think of the economy of scale, we’ve gone out for multiple projects before in town and we’ve gotten a better price,” Collyer said. “I think it is worthwhile.”

But issues could arise from each town using different engineering firms, he said.

Macallister said that first steps in this arrangement would include assessing the needs of each town.

“If there are opportunities to put two or three projects together for each town, it makes a lot of sense,” he said.

According to Gorman, this agreement could also help each town be taken more seriously as a “big customer” by contractors.

“When we did County Road, which wasn’t a small project, we still felt that we weren’t being treated as a big customer,” said Gorman, who added that if all three towns band together they can have more pull when negotiating with contractors.

The three boards will continue to consider the options, and will meet again at the next joint select board meeting, tentatively scheduled for mid-June in Marion.