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Emergency management seeks modest FY26 budget, highlights Everbridge expansion and regional training
Summary
Russ, the town's emergency management lead, briefed the Board of Finance on FY26 operating items and recent accomplishments including expanded use of Everbridge for town communications, FEMA disaster recovery work, school reunification planning, regional active-threat and mass-casualty exercises, and the Motorola radio maintenance contract.
Russ, the town's emergency management lead, presented the FY26 emergency management operating request and summarized the office's accomplishments and capital needs to the Board of Finance committee.
Russ described leveraging the existing Everbridge system to expand townwide communications and said he built templates and self-service tools so department heads (public works, police, fire, health department) could send alerts and newsletters. He reported about 2,000 Everbridge signups from roughly 7,000 households in town and called that an above-average level of resident engagement.
Russ reviewed recent incident work, including coordination of response and recovery after flooding that led to a presidential disaster declaration and local damage at Valley Road and Turner Hill. He described tabletop and field work tied to election planning, school reunification planning (public/private schools plus a nonprofit facility designated as a reunification site), a mock train-derailment mass-casualty drill with Metro-North and a governor's election exercise with state participation. He said the office obtained or staged equipment (including regional assets the town custodians), brought active-threat/tactical emergency casualty care training to local first responders using regional FEMA funding, and completed certification training including the National Emergency Management Academy and courses in fire investigation and fire code inspection.
On operations, Russ asked the committee to retain a Motorola public-safety radio hardware and software maintenance contract (the capital item in his budget request) that provides proactive software updates, hardware replacement and 24/7 vendor support for the town-owned radio system. He said moving to the state radio system would improve interoperability but estimated capital costs in the range of $3 million to $4 million and described that shift as a long-term goal that will require external funding. For near-term resilience, he cited an annual Starlink satellite subscription (about $3,000) he uses to keep the emergency operations center connected during commercial internet outages.
Russ noted the YMCA has agreed to serve as the town's shelter partner at no charge; he and counsel drafted a memorandum of understanding that designates shelter areas and power capabilities. He also said the office maintains regional trailers (animal shelter trailer and person shelter trailer) and the large message boards that support emergency messaging.
Committee members asked whether the town pays the YMCA; Russ said the YMCA does not receive a payment under the current shelter agreement. He removed a three-year order for tri-band radios from the capital ask after determining the town's current procurement progress was sufficient; the only capital item included was the Motorola maintenance/upgrade contract to sustain the town-owned radio infrastructure.
Russ closed by encouraging caution ahead of upcoming severe-weather forecasts and by offering to provide additional detail before the Board of Finance and Town Council hearings.
