CPD awarded state grant to support crisis intervention

By Mike Berger

Thanks to a grant of nearly $100,000 from the state Department of Mental Health, the Canton Police Department will soon be much better equipped to handle crisis calls.

As detailed by Police Chief Helena Rafferty and Deputy Chief Patty Sherrill, the grant’s author, at Tuesday night’s Select Board meeting, the funds will enable the CPD to hire a licensed mental health clinician who will ride with officers to handle any calls involving people in crisis or overdose.

Already, Raffery has hired Ciara Maguire of Community Impact of Milford and she is set to begin work with the CPD on December 27. Maguire will work weekdays from 1-9 p.m. and will also be available as a resource for the Fire Department, Department of Elderly and Human Services, and the Canton Alliance Against Substance Abuse (CAASA).

Select Board members were thrilled with the news and congratulated Rafferty and Sherrill on being awarded the grant, which is renewable annually.

In other news, Canton resident and Norfolk County Commissioner Richard Staiti delivered a check for $1.1 million from the county’s allotment of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) federal funding. Individual municipalities can access this funding on a per-project basis pending approval by the county commissioners.

The money presented by Staiti was for Canton’s first formal funding request and it will go toward the installation of a granular activated carbon filtration system at the Moran water treatment facility as part of the town’s effort to reduce the amount of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in the water supply. PFAS, also known as “forever chemicals,” have been used in the manufacturing of various products over the past several decades and research suggests they can be harmful to humans at even very low levels.

The town of Canton has roughly $3 million in remaining ARPA funding available to access from the county’s allotment and has put forward a few other requests that are pending.

Also on Tuesday, the Select Board …

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