The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • 35

Boston NOTABLE SUmeham's Dickie Doucette wore more varsity letters than any athlete in town. He never played sports, but he was every teams' top fan. Today, the town honors him in its "Class Of softball tournament at Birch Meadow Fields. Page 20. INSIDE Bulletin Board 16 Calendar 16 Dining Out 17' HealthHospitals 11 HomeGarden 19 Opinion ...2 People Places 16 Sports 20 SEPTEMBER 27, 1992 nurses new Report system emerg "nnn v.

Investigator chronicles events surrounding call funnns'l -v I V1 i 1 I i. i i By Jerry Taylor GLOBE STAFF he lawyer who investigated the bungled response to Kathleen Dempsey's stab bing death Aug. 23 at her Lexington home focused on dispatchers at Lexington Fire Department headquarters, who handle calls made to 862-0270, the number for fire and medical emergencies in the town. "The single most corrosive element is the failure of the Fire Department's leadership to recognize that dispatching is an integral part of effective firefighting, and that dispatchers require training, attention and respect commensurate with their important role," said the lawyer, Ralph Gants of Palmer Dodge, a former federal prosecutor in Boston, in his 36-page report to the selectmen. Chief among his recommendations was a call for creation of a combined police-fire dispatching center in the police station.

Town Manager Richard White, who has advocated such a move for years, pledged to have it in operation by next summer, assuming the 1993 town meeting approves an appropriation of $150,000, White's estimate of the cost, including replacement of out-of-date radio equipment. "This incident," White said in an interview, referring to Dempsey's murder, "clearly limits any resistance" to recommended changes "and underscores the need for cooperation." The selectmen, who each received a copy, accepted Gants' report at their Sept. 21 meeting with no discussion of specifics. More than half of the 58 members of the Lexington Fire Department attended the meeting, at which Gants read aloud his findings of what happened in the fire station five weeks ago. After the meeting, Capt.

Richard Sullivan said in an interview: "We've got to review our procedure so this cannot happen ever again. We would like to have responded to that call." Fire Chief John Bergeron, who iin.i"'v i i 111'- Residents who have hired drilling companies to sink wells on their land say they are enthusiastic about cutting water bills that have risen 400 percent since 1985 in communities served by the MWRA. But the new well-digging trend alarms some state health officials who say private wells in industrialized areas may pose hidden health risks to users and possibly threaten the public drinking supply when area are expected to attend. During the ceremony, the Minuteman Bikeway will be honored by the national Rails to Trails Conservancy, a private, nonprofit group that promotes the conversion of abandoned railroad beds to bicycle trails. Conservancy officials issued a challenge five years ago saying that they wanted to have 500 new rail-to-trail conversions in the US by this year, the 500th anniversary of Columbus's arrival in America.

Minute-man is the 500th. As the Minuteman ribbon is be-t PATH, Page 8 mm Jt-'t AjjJt.rrmlltJ ti fi'tttfi Mir Her body was found about 5V4, hours later in her yellow bunga- low IVz miles away. Gants, a former federal prosecutor, urged Lexington's town manager, Richard White, to fire the dispatcher, Kenneth Robi-shaw, 24, a full-time paramedic with a private ambulance service who had worked intermittently as a Lexington fire dispatcher since 1987. He also urged White to take disciplinary action against Fire Capt. Robert Walton, a 24-year veteran and the commanding officer on duty when the call came in.

White set hearings during the week of Oct. 19. The following are excerpts of Gants' report to the Lexington Board of Selectmen: "The telephone rang three times before it was answered by Robishaw, the part-time dispatch- er who had been on duty since p.m. the previous night. EXCERPTS, Page 6 Telecommunications Board.

Gants said in his report that "Lexington's four full-time and four part-time civilian fire dispatchers had received little formal training, like dispatchers in 15 comparable towns surveyed by an aide to White. Gants said Lexington's dispatchers considered themselves "second-class citizens" because they were paid much less than firefighters, "rarely consulted" on matters affecting their jobs, and required td find their own replacements whenever they are unable to work. "A Lexington Fire Department dispatcher generally works alone from 7 p.m. until midnight and in isolation from midnight until 7 a.m.," Gants said. RECOMMENDATIONS, Page 6 having the MWRA supply shut off at the street "IH look at a full year's usage.

If it tests OK, absolutely," he said. Almost all of Lexington's 96 private wells were installed in the last two years for irrigation by people looking for ways around the MWRA rates, said Health Director Geprge Smith. Currently, the town does not have a drinking-well WELL, Page 10 million. While merger suggests consolidations and layoffs, O'Connor said that overall, jobs are not in jeopardy. He envisions one larger full-service community hospital that will grow over time to offer services that patients go out of the city to get, he said.

"I couldn't tell you of one person who is going to loose his job 1," said O'Connor. "In the short term there might be some consolidation, but go out five years we're going to get bigger and offer more services and more jobs in a lean and way," he said. He also estimated that the new hospital wiljtrim be- 7 GLOBE STAFF PHOTO PAT GREENHOUSE a trend these private sources are illegally cross-connected to the public system. Health officials in some Northwest Weekly towns with MWRA water and sewer service say they have seen the interest in private wells follow an increase in water and sewer rates over the last few years. Arlington, Belmont, Lexington, Medford, Stoneham, Winchester and Woburn use both water and sewer Un a tt Hospitals Issues such as specialized technology," an aging population, and rising costs are creating special challenges for the health care industry striving to meet new needs in the NorthWest Weekly area.

Stories, Pages 11-15. 1 i 10th ANNIVERSARY- The big green dinosaur along Route 27 in Acton, being hugged by 5-year-old Alexander Schultz ofWayland, is a beacon for the Children's Discovery Museums, celebrating their 10th year with a special daylong festival next Saturday. Page 16. By Jerry Taylor GLOBE STAFF LEXINGTON The five-hour delay in the town's emergency personnel's response to Kathleen Dempsey's fatal stabbing five weeks ago today began with a dispatcher's inability or failure to hear a crucial part of her address the words "Ridge Road" and his failure to seek help either from someone else in the fire station or from the New England Telephone operator who assisted the dying woman in making the call for help. These are among the findings by Ralph Gants, a lawyer with Palmer Dodge, the town's law firm, who investigated what happened in the Lexington Fire Department headquarters after Dempsey, a 31-year-old graphic artist, reached the town's number for fire and medical emergencies, 862-0270, at 5:30 a.m.

Aug. 23. attended the selectmen's meeting, said in an interview the next day at his office: "The report is very comprehensive, balanced, and addresses areas -particularly procedures and supervision that we can quickly close the gap on. From the supervision aspect alone, combined dispatching is the best solution. In the fire station, there are times when everyone is responding to an alarm and the only one in the station is the dispatcher.

That's a critical time. We cannot fill that gap." Enhanced 911, in which a caller's address automatically appears on the dispatcher's screen, will be available to cities and towns in Massachusetts beginning in late 1993 or early 1994, according to Glenn Roach, director of the Statewide Emergency water and sewer bill will now be only about $200 a year. The well is strictly an irrigation well, said Copp. It has not been tested for drinking and is not connected to his domestic water supply. But Copp said he could envision himself using his well exclusively if the water rates continue to rise.

If the cost of testing the water for drinking safety does not eat up the savings, Copp said he would consider O'Connor, president of St John's. But the idea was "put on a fast track" this year when fiscal and other management pressures combined "to make the timing right," he said. The name of the new hospital will likely be announced this week. The state Legislature smoothed the way for the merger in late July when the House and Senate overrode a veto by Gov. Weld of a budget rider that forgives as much as $7.8 million of estimated overcharges the two hospitals would have had to pay back to the state's uncompensated care pool, a fund that pays for free care for the poor.

The hospitals asked for the debt forgiveness saying a nwrger would cost about $3 Rising rates spur toward private wells By Sharon Britton SPECIAL TO THE GLOBE pset over rising Massachusetts Water Resources Authority rates, homeowners in several North West communities have installed service from the MWRA. Most residents say, however, they are only installing irrigation wells outside their homes for watering grass, filling pools and washing cars and are keeping separate the public water supply indoors. When Lexington resident William Copp figured it would cost him about $1,600 a year to water his lawn, he had an irrigation well sunk last February for $3,000. His total wells on their own properties either to supplement or replace the public water supply, saving money as a re-. suit.

2 Lowell hospitals set merger date Minuteman Bikeway to open with salute By Ann Hall SPECIAL TO THE GLOBE RLINGTON-The long-lii 1 awaited Minuteman 1 Bikeway will be dedicated a next Saturday as part of a Wat nationwide salute to the growth of bicycle pathways. The dedication ceremony will begin at 11 a.m. in front of the Jefferson Cutter House on Mystic Street and Massachusetts Avenue. State By Sharon Britton SPECIAL TO THE GLOBE OWELL Ending more than a decade of speculation that they would merge or one of them would go out of business, St. John's and St.

Joseph's hospitals will combine forces Oct. 1 to become one larger, more stable acute care hospital, replacing two weaker ones, say officials. Pitted against one another in a three-hospital market that includes Lowell General Hospital, the two Catholic hospitals had discussed merger twice in the last 15 years, but could not agree, said Dr. Daniel and local dignitaries, seven different companies of minutemen, and scores of bicyclists frpm throughout the MERGER, Page 12 i- 4-.