Data shows Dartmouth ended 2015 on a high note

Jan 26, 2016

Crime is down, work-related injuries are few and far between and solar panels were the most popular permit for home owners in the past six months.

The DartStat team returned to the Select Board on Monday night to present the latest figures on the town’s numbers. DartStat is a data aggregation program that sorts through information to help increase efficiency in town. The data is collected and arranged into easy-to-digest charts and graphs that can be used by town officials to spot trends.

Employees for the Department of Public Works have had only a few reported injuries in the past six months. The recycling department, in particular, has gone a record three and a half years without an injury claim, a feat attributed to the town’s shift to automated recycling trucks.

“I want to say a special thanks to the [Department of Public Works],” said Town Administrator David Cressman. “To see the record that we have in worker’s compensation is phenomenal.”

“We went six months with hardly a major claim,” he said. “I think that’s significant. It shows in our budget numbers. We’ve gone six years without adjusting that worker’s comp budget.”

Cressman also expressed his thanks to the Dartmouth Police Department. DartStat data showed that 2,033 crimes were reported in 2015. That figure was down by 11 percent from 2014, when there was a total of 2,280 crimes reported.

Lyden Marcellot, who helped process the information for the presentation, said, in the future, the DartStat team hopes to track the locations of where crime is happening.

In December, the Town used DartStat data when renewing its contract with Stat Ambulances Services. The contract, which goes into effect in October 2016, added time constraints for responders.

For code 1 and code 2 calls (more time-urgent calls), EMTs have to respond with a six-minute average on a monthly basis. For code 3 calls (non-urgent calls), ambulance drivers must meet an average monthly response time of 15 minutes. If the company is not keeping up with those times, then its required to prepare and submit a dispatch response plan within 30 days to the town.

The latest DartStat data showed that response times in Dartmouth have hovered around the six-minute mark since July 2014. However, the data set currently groups code 1, 2 and 3 calls together, which may skew the data. Cressman said the analysts will have to start breaking down that information to get a better sense of response times to urgent and non-urgent calls.

He also reiterated a point made during the time of the contract renewal: the ambulance station in the south end of town, which is currently housed at the Fire District 2 fire station, will have to eventually move further east to accommodate for the higher volume of calls along Dartmouth Street.

Lastly, the data revealed that homeowners have sought more solar panel permits than any other kind of building permit. In the past six months, solar panel permits have trumped re-roofing, insulation, windows and siding permits.

“We’ve grown dramatically in the number of people and businesses that have solar on their rooftops,” said Cressman. “I’ve got to commend the residents and the businesses in terms of what they’ve done for creating a more sustainable environment.”