The future of the shared regional communications system for Wilton, Milford and Mont Vernon is up in the air, after a vote on Dec. 23 by the Milford Select Board to support a warrant article to build a new communication center for the multi-town agency onto the Milford police station.

Currently, the three towns co-own Milford Area Communications Center, or MACC Base, which is located on the fourth floor of the Milford Town Hall. The communications center also serves Lyndeborough, though Lyndeborough does not have ownership stakes in the system.

During its meeting on Dec. 23, the Milford Select Board voted 3-2 to support a warrant article asking Milford voters for a bond for $2.4 million to support upgrades and replacements of the town’s communications structure with a new “Milford Emergency Communications dispatch center.” The article also states that the center would allow connectivity with neighboring communities if they choose to participate.

The article was based off the recommendation of a consultant who studied the communications center, and presented options to the Milford board mid-December, with the top recommendation being Milford providing its own communications out of the Milford police department, with an alternate recommendation for a regional communications center, also out of the police department. 

If the center is regional, each town would pay for building infrastructure such as transmission towers in its own towns. Milford would pay about $2 million for the infrastructure, Wilton about $938,800, Mont Vernon $870,300 and Lyndeborough $738,500.

In addition, the towns would have to pay operational costs, a yearly cost of $471,250 for Milford, $97,500 for Wilton, $65,000 for Mont Vernon, and $16,250 for Lyndeborough. Those yearly costs would be less than the current operational costs.

Milford Select Board member Chris Labonte, who voted against supporting the article, said he would like to see an option for upgrades to the current system, overbuilding an addition to the police station. He also said he wanted an option that was more explicitly a partnership with the current members of MACC Base.

“We’ve been together 30 years. It’s worked,” Labonte said. “I favor a regional system, if it can be done.”

Board member Mike Putnam agreed, saying, “It’s worked for many years. I’d like to see it stay that way.” 

Putnam said he also favored the communications center staying at the Town Hall, and said Milford needed to be willing to make compromises with its partner towns.

Jason Johnson, Director of MACC Base, pointed out during the Dec. 23 meeting that there was also an option to upgrade the current equipment, in its current location. The same firm that ultimately recommended the communications center be moved to the police station priced that option at a total of $1.66 million.

“Being good stewards of your community’s money, they are much smaller numbers. Much more palatable, I think, as far as your voters go,” Johnson said.

Johnson said while there were challenges to running operations while a systems upgrade was going on, they were not unsurmountable, and MACC Base had been able to continue during at least three other upgrades during his tenure. 

“A lot of what’s in here for recommendations from them are things that we have been proposing back to the towns for years and years and years,” Johnson said. “No one argues that absolutely everything needs to be replaced. We’ve done our best to hold things together with duct tape and bubblegum, for lack of better terms, for a very long time because we have been running on a shoestring.”

Wilton Selectwoman Kellie-Sue Boissonnault said in an interview Monday that the first time the partner towns had heard figures on the proposed police station addition plan was during the Milford Select Board meeting on Dec. 16. She said the study was initiated by Milford without consultation by other partners in MACC Base, and the police station plan was also not something the MACC Base board of directors had any say in.

“This is being driven by a majority of the Milford Select Board,” Boissonnault said. 

Boissonnault said she didn’t know the wording of the warrant article voted on by the Milford board on Dec. 23, and could not comment on it. However, she said, if Milford wants to leave the MACC Base partnership and provide its own communications, it must give other members a year’s notice, based on the agreement signed by all three member towns. 

Boissonnault also said that if Milford is seeking to have Wilton as a customer, rather than a partner, in its new communications center, Wilton may not be on board.

“We’re not willing to join into this as a customer. We’d like to stay as partners,” she said.