Public Safety Sub Committee Meeting November 21, 2013-Approved
PUBLIC SAFETY SUB COMMITTEE MEETING
REGULAR MEETING - 7:00 AM
NOVEMBER 21, 2013
CALL TO ORDER
Lisa Heavner, Deputy 1st Selectman, called the Regular Meeting of the Public Safety Subcommittee to order at 7:05 A.M. on Thursday, November 21, 2013 in the Main Meeting Room of the Simsbury Town Offices located at 933 Hopmeadow Street, Simsbury, CT. The following members were also present: Chief James Baldis, Simsbury Volunteer Fire Department; Nicholas Boulter, Simsbury Police Department; Jeffrey Cochran, CL&P; Thomas Cooke, Town of Simsbury, Administrative Services; Michael Delehanty, Simsbury Volunteer Ambulance Association; Geoffrey Giddings, Civil Defense, Thomas Greenlaw, COO, Ethel Walker School; Chief Peter Ingvertsen, Town of Simsbury, Police Department; Kevin Kowalski, Simsbury Volunteer Fire Department; Burke LaClair, Board of Education, Business Manager; Mickey Lecours-Beck, Director, Town of Simsbury Social Services; Thomas Roy, Town of Simsbury, Public Works; Kevin Witkos, CL&P and State Senator. Also in attendance were Pattie Jacobs, Bicycle/Pedestrian Advisory Committee and Diana Moody, Bicycle/Pedestrian Advisory Committee
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
Everyone stood for the Pledge of Allegiance
PUBLIC AUDIENCE
There was none.
BICYCLE/PEDESTRIAN ADVISORY
Patti Jacobs spoke of Simsbury’s goal to reach a Silver level bike community. Safety is the number one concern and the Police department has been instrumental in helping us move forward. Simsbury is a friendly bike community but everyone in town needs to understand what we are doing. She noted that there are many people coming into Simsbury to ride their bikes. The BOE approved a safety pilot program for 3rd and 4th graders to receive bike safety education in school. This was very successful, so they are rolling it out to the entire town. Next year, all 4th grades will have bike education. We are the 2nd school system in the state of Connecticut that is actually training bike safety in schools. Patti would like to write a bike safety plan which would include identifying dangerous intersections and what our plans would be to improve them as well as numerous other items. She would like to have input from different groups in town as she believes that town government and officials should be role models for bike safety. Patti said she would like to see extending our trail network into Hartford as it currently goes all the way to New Haven. With May being “bike month” Simsbury will celebrate with such events as “Bike to Work Day” and “Safe Route to Schools”. We need to show how the Public Safety Sub-committee is tied in to what we are doing so that when we put in our application to the League, we get great marks going forward.
Diana Moody stated that Mary Glassman will help with more enforcement on the roads. She stated that the trails will also need to be monitored to be able to reach Silver level. Diana noted that Simsbury is 18th out of 50 states to be a bike friendly community. Diane noted that cyclists have to follow the rules of the road just like a motorist and we need to educate everyone. Compared to other towns, Simsbury is receiving high marks. We have placed three columns in the Simsbury News on rules of the road. This column is called Shifting Gears.
Kevin Kowalski asked the question on the standard width requirement to place bike routes on Simsbury roads. Thomas Roy stated that all roads are for all vehicles and that the bike symbols are just warnings for motorists to be aware of bikes on the road. Some of the stripping on the road does go into the driving portion of the road.
1. APPROVAL OF MINUTES
James Baldis made a motion to approve the minutes from the Public Safety Subcommittee Regular Meeting on May 16, 2013 as presented. The motion was seconded by Peter Ingvertsen and was unanimously passed.
Kevin Witkos made a motion to approve the minutes from the Public Safety Subcommittee Regular Meeting on July 18, 2013 as presented. The motion was seconded by Mickey Lecours-Beck and was unanimously passed with Thomas Cooke abstained.
2. UPDATES AND REPORTS
Ambulance - Michael Delehanty stated that East Granby ambulance has been absorbed by Granby ambulance. Granby plans to staff a second unit during the day. This will be another resource for Simsbury in the day time. East Granby has been struggling with only 350 calls a year. Michael obtained analysis of call times and days with the possibility of staffing a second ambulance during peak hours based on the need of the town but will have to look at what the financial responsibility would be. A lot of voluntary organizations rapidly tend to lose their volunteer base once they start paying EMTs. Looking into billing for services into the future. Weekend calls have leveled off and are similar to weekday hours. There are more volunteers available on weekends. Reimbursement in general for healthcare is changing and one aspect is to try and capture community paramedicine. The goal is to prevent hospital admissions and specifically prevent re-admissions which are a huge cost to the health care system. Michael believes that we need to educate the patient and family members. This is a new concept but in certain areas of the country these programs have started up with grants. One suggestion was to treat the patient in their home and then return in a day or two to check on the patient to be sure they are taking their medications, etc. but this has no reimbursement. A lot of changes must be made by state regulation and insurance company models to capture this. There will be competition for this (i.e. visiting nurses) in order for these organizations to keep operational. This will probably be a few years down the road.
Kevin Kowalski stated his concern about the Affordable Care Act for the fire and EMS providers pertaining to the pay schedule for ambulance and transport in that they may not be able to facilitate transportation costs.
Civil Preparedness – Kevin Kowalski stated that the FM low power station has been applied for after about six months and he thanked Thomas Cooke for his assistance and Geoffrey Giddings for taking the lead on this project. Everything has been completed and we applied for three at three different stations and are hoping to get at least one. This will take anywhere from six to eight months to process. Kevin also requested that the town should give public recognition to Jeff Hugabone, Chief Engineer, WTIC radio for all his assistance to put this in place. Re-broadcast of e-mails will be sent to everyone on committee. Kevin would like to do quarterly training exercises at the Public Safety Subcommittee meetings starting today.
Fire – James Baldis noted that Simsbury Celebrates is coming and the firehouses are getting ready with the parade next week. He also reminded everyone that fire hydrants need to be shoveled out after a snow storm and that the help of the public is greatly appreciated. Simsbury Volunteer Fire Department has contracted for two new replacement pumpers which will be coming in the summer and fall replacing two 25 years old pumpers. He also stated that Stratton Brook Road now has a new hydrant and an old hydrant side by side. This is due to two main lines, one new line and one old line. When the new line goes into effect, the old line/hydrant will be removed and hydrant will be refurbished.
Farmington Valley Health District – No Report
Police – Peter Ingvertsen stated that the town has a new police officer finishing field training this week, Jamie Ball, who was originally a dispatcher here in Simsbury and stayed as a part-time dispatcher. He went to Granby as an officer and we brought him back here. Jamie should be on the road by the end of the week. We are currently in the process of interviewing nine certified officers for the other vacancy we have. We are anticipating another opening around the 1st of the year. There is one female officer currently in the academy, Laura Mandell, and she will be working in Simsbury for another year. Peter also noted that they were in a competition with three other departments in the area and received 1st place for occupant safety in motor vehicles and best overall in the State of Connecticut as well as 3rd place for overall competition for our size community. Two projects the Police Department is undertaking is looking into getting lock boxes in cruisers to help officers get into homes when needed without breaking in. Life saver program is a means of locating lost persons who may walk off from a home. The residents would participate by wearing a bracelet and we would be able to track them down wherever they go. These bracelets have a three mile radius. A $6,000 grant has been received and we are waiting for the 2nd grant to come in to start the program. A few residents brought this idea to us.
Social Services – Mickey Lecours-Beck noted that approximately 300 families in town have applied for energy assistance and are qualified. We are currently helping out now with donations because people are running out of oil before they can fill up again. Approximately 46% of residents are eligible for SNAP/food stamps but are not getting it. There will be someone at the senior center who will be accepting applications every other week to make this easier for residents. Annual Skate Share at Simsbury Farms will be December 23rd from 1:00 to 3:00 between Social Services, Police Department and Recreation. We are collecting Help Your Neighbor Jars which collects your loose change for the holidays to give to the needy people in town. James Baldis also noted that the Jack Bannon Turkey Trot collected 2039 turkeys for the holidays.
3. NEW BUSINESS
Aquarion - Lisa Heavner stated that a Press Release stated that the Aquarion announced an 8.6% increase but it is actually a 17.3% increase in the West and North district. The town has contacted the Attorney General and Consumer Protection to re-open this decision and Kevin Witkos will be assisting in this matter. Kevin Kowalski noted that the fire district was also against the rate increase. The tax payers not only will have to pay for higher water rates but the fire hydrants are currently charged $98,000 every six months and will go up to $122,000 with this increase. This is an 11% to 15% increase overall just for the ability to get water out of the hydrants. Simsbury owns the hydrants. We also have a concern of the commercial structure which keeping the water rate at the current rate, but will increase the service charge to that facility by 11% to 18%. This can go up to 25% to 30% increase for fire service charges. Kevin Kowalski will provide a summary to Tom Roy regarding this information. This increase should be phased in over a longer period of time.
Approve 2014 Calendar – Peter Ingvertsen made a motion to approve the 2014 Calendar. The motion was seconded by James Baldis and was unanimously passed.
Outage Map Presentation – Kevin Witkos presented the CL&P outage map which includes a colored scheme map of Connecticut towns with outages as well as percentages of customers without power in each town. It was noted that the first priority would be the clearing of roads in town. Kevin stated that CL&P starts working on areas that would bring up the most customers. There are crews that are dedicated to Simsbury area work center. Chris Baldis stated that it would be a good idea to get this information available on cell phones.
Logistics were discussed for Dan Crowley dedication.
Kevin Kowalski did a 10 minute emergency preparedness table training exercise on active shooter in a building.
ADJOURNMENT
Thomas Cooke made a motion to adjourn the November 21, 2013 Regular Meeting of the Public Safety Subcommittee at 8:47 a.m. The motion was seconded by James Baldis and passed unanimously.
Respectfully submitted,
____________________________________ ______________________________
Lisa Heavner, Chairman Leslie Brigham, Commissions Clerk