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LEICESTER, Mass. — As the town of Leicester considers the decision to join Worcester's Regional Dispatch Center, officials are now looking for the public's input at a forum set for Feb. 27.
The regionalization effort would move Leicester's police, fire and EMS dispatching to the future Worcester's Regional Dispatch Center. The current police station would effectively close to the public.
Leicester's participation in the regionalization agreement could save the town money. Both Police Chief Jim Hurley and Fire Chief Robert Wilson said the change could potentially benefit their departments.
But regionalization has also drawn criticism from residents, whose concerns range from how to handle prisoner lock-up to whether Leicester emergency calls would get lost in the shuffle of city dispatching.
In a recent uscientific poll conducted by The Daily Voice, 80 percent of voters were against regionalizing dispatch, with 20 percent in favor of the change.
To help answer questions about the project, selectmen have set a public forum on the Regional Dispatch Center for 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 27 at Leicester Town Hall.
The forum will include a presentation on the project and a question and answer session.
Selectman Doug Belanger said residents with questions that might require research should contact the selectmen's office ahead of time.
Comments (1)
Let us know questions ahead of time so we know how to lie about it by the time the meeting happens