Public Safety Advisory Committee

The Leyden Public Safety Citizen Advisory Committee (PSCAC) was formed on December 9, 2021 by the Select Board and Town Moderator. Its membership was composed of Elizabeth Kidder, Chair, Emily Yazwinski, Barbara Wallace, Michael Morgan, Anders Ferguson, Marcia Miller, and Devorah Vester.

Mission:

To make sure the people of Leyden have adequate police, fire, and emergency coverage to make sure everyone is safe.

The Committee was charged with the task of reviewing the Public Safety needs of Leyden and make recommendations to the Select Board designed to ensure that Leyden has the most efficient and effectively run public safety services possible. These services include: police, fire, emergency medical, and emergency management. The Select Board has the responsibility to ensure that all public safety departments are fully staffed, trained, respected, functioning cooperatively, and that they operate in full compliance with all Massachusetts laws, regulations, and procedures.

The Committee spent two years working with the Edward J. Collins Center of Public Management on an Intermunicipal Agreement for Police Services with the Town of Bernardston, a contract with the Colrain Volunteer Ambulance Association Inc., and the rebuilding of our fire department and local emergency management committee. That effort was funded by an Efficiency and Regionalization Grant that ended in December 2023.

PSCAC voted to recommend that the committee be dissolved at the end of the grant and that Public Safety Planning be added to the responsibility of the Leyden Emergency Management Committee (LEMC). Elizabeth Kidder and Anders Ferguson were appointed as Public Safety Planners to the LEMC by the Leyden Select Board in December 2023.

If you have any questions, please send an email to Publicsafety@townofleyden.com