The Milford Area Communications Center is in the beginning stages of upgrading the equipment and infrastructure in their dispatch center. This would require the three towns served by MACC – Milford, Mont Vernon and Wilton – to contribute funds to the project.

MACC director Ray Anderson and Wilton Police Chief Eric Olesen said at Monday’s Wilton Select Board meeting that the upgrades are needed, as the existing equipment is old and becoming outdated.

“What we’re looking at is large cost; [we’re] talking about replacing the consoles, replacing furniture, upgrading the building and doing the things that need to be done,” Olesen said.  “You’re looking at equipment that’s decades old. It’s best that we try and start figuring out a plan for the future and how we’re going to accomplish getting this paid for.”

According to Anderson, the radio consoles are operational, and he hopes they will continue to function until they can be replaced with newer models.

“But if they went belly-up tomorrow morning, they do not make spare parts for them, they don’t manufacture replacement equipment for them, so at the end of life it’s on to the next generation of consoles,” he said.

The MACC base has two full dispatcher workstations and a third, incomplete workstation used for spare equipment and parts if needed at one of the other stations. Anderson said he hopes to add a third, complete workstation during the upgrade for times of increased call volume. It would also allow a dispatch operator to switch workstations if their current workstation requires maintenance.

This third workstation would be laptop-based, allowing the dispatcher to leave the MACC building if needed.

Anderson said that the total cost to replace the existing radio consoles, including the addition of a laptop-based workstation, is about $350,000.

Anderson also said that during similar past upgrades, electrical wiring was cut and left in place, leading to useless, dead-end cables taking up space. A complete rework of the electrical infrastructure would clean out excess, unused electrical cable and streamline the system. Anderson estimated the electrical work would cost about $30,000 to $35,000.

Anderson said that they are currently considering whether MACC base should remain in place at the Milford Town Hall, or if it should be moved to a different space.

The Wilton Select Board indicated that they were interested in working with MACC and the other two participating towns, but had some reservations based on past experiences.

Select Board member Tom Schultz noted that Milford has expressed a desire to build its own dispatch center to serve the town exclusively, but that member MACC towns voted against the proposal. Schultz expressed concern that Wilton could contribute to the project only for Milford to attempt to build its own dispatch center again.

“I’ve been on this board for 10 years,” Selectman Kermit Williams said. “For all of those 10 years, there’s been an essential disagreement with Milford over how this should work. They have wanted to have their own system, and have welcomed us as customers, but not as the somewhat-unequal partners we are now. I don’t think we were very comfortable with that idea.”

Anderson said he would be speaking to the other member towns and attempting to facilitate a discussion between the towns’ select boards to come to an agreeable solution.

Formal discussion on the MACC base will continue after Anderson  has spoken to the remaining member towns in August.