The Town of Rochester is set to join Duxbury, Halifax and Plympton in a regionalized 911 program on May 15, Town Administrator Suzanne Szyndlar said to the Board of Selectmen on April 23.

The Board of Selectmen signed off on a 911 regionalization project, where Rochester will join the Regional Old Colony Communications Center (ROCC), early in 2017. Regionalized centers have become increasingly common in the state, particularly in the western counties, because of the increased efficiency in dispatching.

Rochester’s dispatching services currently employ one dispatcher; there are two dispatchers in the regional center, and numbers will increase as more towns regionalize into the ROCC.

Originally, Szyndlar said that the rollover date might be pushed back a month to June 19, to make sure all of the department's technology was in order. However, it appears that the handover will occur on time.

In preparation, several dispatchers from the ROCC have been in Rochester in the past few weeks, tagging along on ride-alongs to get to know the area.