Scarborough, South Portland and Cape Elizabeth were awarded a $10,000 grant this week, to study the potential of regionalizing the towns’ dispatch centers into a single unit.

The dispatch study would look at consolidating the towns’ three dispatch centers and how much consolidation can be done. It also will investigate the technical aspects of regionalizing dispatch services and what would be necessary for all three towns to work together. The study will calculate the costs of consolidating the dispatch centers.

The money is from the Fund for the Efficient Delivery of Local and Regional Services, which was given $1 million from the state to assist local communities to study or implement, regionalized efforts. A total of 121 municipalities were awarded money to study 26 different regionalization proposals.

The three towns had been discussing regionalizing their 911 call centers, also called PSAPs, because the state wants to reduce the number of call centers statewide from 48 to between 16 and 24.

Given the population size of Scarborough, Cape Elizabeth and South Portland, local officials believe one of the call centers should be located in the area and the towns should not be consolidated with a larger population base. That discussion led to the possibly of consolidating all of the town’s dispatch services.

Scarborough, South Portland and Cape Elizabeth, along with a number of other area towns, received $10,000 to investigate forming an interlocal Stormwater working group.

Some of the other services that are being investigated by communities around the state include joint fire services, regional purchasing collaborations, shared assessing services, regional transfer and recycling facilities, compatible databases for accounting, and consolidation of water and wastewater treatment plant facilities.