Ballot Article 4 - Bond for Police/Fire substation on March 12 ballot

Dear Bedford neighbors,

Recently, the former Police Chief, Dave Bailey, posted a brief note on his view of the proposed police station/fire substation. The voters will be asked to vote on Article 4 on March 12. He added, if anyone desired additional information, email him. I did. With his permission, I share with you.
The following are the words of former Police Chief, Dave Bailey, relative to the proposed South River Road Police Station- Fire substation Project
●He appreciates all the hard work the town has put into project
● Police department is in good hands with new Chief Dan Douidi
●He wished he had been asked to be a member of the building committee. He writes, “Unfortunately the only thing I can do now is vote no on the bond for the whole project. I think the Council is well meaning and the staff has put a lot of work in the project and I really didn’t want to publicly oppose it, but I thought it was important to give another view.”
● I believe they should have proposed a bond for just the sub firestation now which most everyone agreed is needed now. Their rationale was they didn’t want to keep coming back with bond issues.
● The main concern with proposed police station is, “location, location, location.” Police are not on the road as much as we may think thus the location of police station is more suited in its current site. They are in the station for shift changes, meetings, training, investigations, arrests, etc. Arrests can sometimes take hours. On DUI arrests, if the arresting officer isn’t a certified breathalyzer officer, then another officer has to come in. Then, if the arrestee is going to be held for more than an hour or so, that person has to be transported to Valley Street jail.
● If you have a critical incident such as an active shooter in the high school for example, additional help initially would come from the station (command staff, detectives and any other sworn personnel in the station at the time). Time is as crucial as a working fire in those types of incidents. The South River Road location would double the time to the high school, two other schools and a couple of minutes longer to another school.
● The current location is about as good as it gets for a police station location for responding to schools and just about anywhere in town. Current location has worked very well for almost 30 years and still has a future as a police station.
● Yes, they (police) need additional space. The administrative staff (6 people) of the public works department occupies a whole second floor wing on the police side of the safety complex. Before that the space was leased by ATF (alcohol, tobacco & firearms). That second floor is a fortress because of their strict federal regulations. It also has a big walk-in vault that they used to store seized firearms. Bailey asks, “Why move police out of all their state of the art communication equipment and other unique requirements of police to a new building when they could build a simple office building for public works and attach it to the proposed fire substation or the land already owned on Chubbuck Road where the highway garage is.”
● I say the current station is secure and safe with modern card key access and cameras everywhere. I believe the security system was updated a year or so ago. The public works departments need security but not at the level of the police need.
● The current safety complex was built as an essential building with enforced infrastructure to withstand an earthquake or hurricane. I was surprised to learn the proposed building is not going to be reinforced.
● In my opinion there are some wants and not needs in the new proposed building. For example, a five lane firing range. Only three departments have indoor ranges: Manchester, Nashua and Portsmouth; all much larger departments. They have to have specialized HVAC systems and I’m told are very costly to maintain.
compiled by Linda Rea Camarota with permission)

Now, we have more than one perspective on the proposed facilities plan. This is how voters come to make important decisions for our town. The one thing I had not yet thought of was the location of the police station relative to the middle/high school and others. School safety is critical. Please talk to your neighbors and vote on March 12.
Linda Rea Camarota