Lee, Massachusetts is shutting down its local emergency dispatch center. It will switch to a countywide system instead.
Lee would have had to spend nearly $300,000 in state funds to upgrade its dispatch center to be able to work with a new multimedia-oriented state system.
Lee Police Chief Jeffrey Roosa says the department isn’t going to do that.
“We, over the last couple of years, have been looking to regionalize and to downsize, and to join up with the county dispatch,” Roosa says.
Lee will join the Berkshire County Sheriff's 911 Dispatch Center by the end of October.
“The sheriff’s department radio system is actually more powerful than ours. We have done testing down here in town and their radio system actually covers our town better than our own does,” Roosa says.
The town budgeted $116,000 for the next fiscal year’s emergency communications, which will cover local dispatch until the switch.
Services performed by the dispatch team and police — like a daily wellness check for elderly residents — will continue.