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December 29, 2022
Year in review
Hinesburg gauges public safety services
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First it was the ambulance service. By the end of February, Hinesburg announced it was postponing attempts to create its own ambulance service, citing a lack of available staff. Then in March, voters handed the selectboard a mandate: reduce the size of its police budget. That cascaded into an exodus of the police staff and discussions with other towns about possibly combining services to address the shortage of available police. For Hinesburg, 2022 presented town officials with an at times unclear question of what it wants its public safety services — police, fire and EMS — to look like and if it has the available resources and personnel to make that happen. The town of roughly 4,700 is, over the next decade, set to undergo tremendous change — with more than 400 housing units on the horizon and an at least 15 percent increase in population projected. Officials recognize this and wrapped up a tumultuous year with the hiring of a consultant to conduct its public safety stra-
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tegic plan, the first of its kind since 2008, to provide a comprehensive overview of its rescue services. “What, generally, does public safety mean to residents of Hinesburg? We’re going to get a lot of different opinions,” town manager Todd Odit said. “The consultant
will distill those down and say, ‘Here’s what the consensus is, or the majority is, here are what other communities are doing, here are ways you can achieve that vision of public safety.’” The start of the year began with the disappointing news: the town did not have the
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available resources or staff to start its own ambulance service. Contracting for decades with Saint Michael’s Fire and Rescue in Colchester, the town briefly considered starting its own See PUBLIC SAFETY on page 7
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