Selectboard trims Fire, Highway, Police, and Dispatch budgets

By Heather McKim

The Shelburne Selectboard held a special meeting on Dec. 4 to conduct a budget work session, the second of six planned special budget-focused meetings slated for December and January.

Thursday night’s meeting saw the Fire Department, Highway Department, Police and Emergency Dispatch present. Their budgets, and others, had been whittled down by Town Manager Joe Colangelo and Finance Director Peter Frankenberg prior to the meeting. Representatives from the departments were present to talk about the original budgets they had submitted.

Fire Chief Jerry Ouimet spoke of his department’s proposed budget of $233,480. “We really kept it as close to last year as we could,” Ouimet said.

The top priorities in the budget for this year are the two thermal imaging cameras and security system, Ouimet said. He placed them above the failing generator whose replacement has been in the proposed budget for five years now.

The thermal imaging cameras allow for firefighters to find the hot spots in a fire, which helps to minimize damage to property. They also allow for them to find people through the smoke and fire.

The new security system would not only improve the security of the fire station, it would also allow the department to know who was in the building and when. This would also mean that locks would not have to keep being changed.

Next, Highway Superintendent Paul Goodrich discussed his department’s proposed budget of $1,486,869. Goodrich’s biggest concerns, paving and salting, were already reduced from his proposed budget.

“If you decrease it, you will never regain it,” Goodrich said of paving. The paving schedule will not be able to be made up for in next year’s budget and would be irrevocably put off course.

Goodrich said that, without proper salting, no one, including the emergency personnel, would get anywhere. If funds were decreased, though, it wouldn’t mean no salting, but that the department has to draw funds from capital projects.

Goodrich starts the season with a full shed of salt. However, a typical year sees 1,400 or more tons of salt needed for Shelburne’s roads. With talk of a salt shortage this winter, that could spell higher prices.

Von Stange inquired as to staffing needs. Goodrich said that, with just five full-time and three part-time seasonal employees, his department is always a bit short-handed.

“We could use more [employees]. In the winter, we’re tight,” Goodrich said.

Finally, the focus was the Police and Emergency Dispatch budget. The submitted proposal showed $1,635,000 in expenses for the police and $105,000 in revenues; on the dispatch side, the numbers were $603,200 for expenses and $299,000 in revenues.

“We’re pretty close to the wire,” Police Chief Jim Warden said.

The department consists of 12 full-time officers (including the chief), one part-time officer, six part-time occasional and one full-time administrative assistant. There are just four marked cars.

With this small force, Shelburne has managed to keep crime fairly well in check. However, Warden said, “We’ve been lucky, but one of these days we might get hit again. We have to be prepared. I think we are prepared.”

Dispatch, with eight full-time and four part-time employees, handles numerous tasks beyond taking emergency calls. It is a holding place for all restraining orders in the county, and they file all case paperwork, hand out keys to those needing access to town buildings, and more.

One of the items removed from the submitted budget was the alarm monitor replacement, which would cost $35,000. If this is not replaced, the department would lose the monitoring fees associated with it, which account for a few thousand dollars per year in revenues.

As Shelburne grows, so too will the costs for policing it and keeping the town safe. “The service has got to be there,” Warden said.

Each of the departments will go back over the numbers. Discussions will continue with Colangelo and Frankenberg.

The next regular Selectboard meeting is Dec. 9. The remaining special meetings are set for Dec. 17 and 18, Jan. 6, and Jan. 20.