By Carla Charter
Telegram & Gazette
HUBBARDSTON, Mass. — A card-swipe system for emergency personnel likely will be available to Hubbardston, Gardner, Ashburnham, Westminster, Winchendon, Leominster, Fitchburg and Lunenburg, thanks to a $400,000 federal grant.
Selectmen recently approved having the town become the fiduciary agent to disburse the grant money. The town will receive $8,000 for costs associated with disbursing the grant, which was applied for through the North Worcester County Drug Task Force.
Hubbardston would receive 2 percent of the grant.
The grant would be used to create a credentialing card-swipe system for emergency personnel. “This would allow us to track people coming in and out of secure areas,” Police Chief Dennis Perron said.
The system can also be used on a voluntary basis to create such cards for people in the community to communicate information in an emergency. The cards could contain vital information for responding emergency personnel, such as emergency contacts, special health concerns and medications.
“This is cutting-edge technology,” said Chief Perron. No one beyond first responders with card readers would be able to access the information, he said.
The grant program was backed by U.S. Rep. John W. Olver, D-Amherst, and is awaiting Senate approval. “He is confident it will go through,” Chief Perron said.
The program will run for three or four years, and once the program is ended the town would only be responsible for items such as cards and cartridges, Chief Perron said. “Olver’s office asked about this because they didn’t want to burden the towns with technology they couldn’t support,” he said.
The grant would be administered by Chief Perron and Chief Neil Erickson of the Gardner Police Department. Both chiefs went to Washington in February and visited Mr. Olver, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy and Sen. John F. Kerry’s office to advocate for the grant.
The second phase of the project, at a cost of another $400,000 if approved by Congress, would be used to update evidence tracking.