Adams Proposed Budget Requests Two Police Cruisers

Police Chief Richard Tarsa lays out the case for purchasing new cruisers.

This is the fourth in a series of articles on the review of the fiscal 2016 budget held this past week. The first part can be found here; the second, here, and the third, here.

ADAMS, Mass. — The proposed fiscal 2016 budget requests the purchase of two police cruisers for a total of $72,000.

Police Chief Richard Tarsa presented the public safety budget Thursday night to a joint meeting of the Selectmen and Finance Committee.

The police budget presentation can be found here.

He urged the boards to consider the purchase of two cruisers for $34,818 each with additional costs for equipment to upgrade the town's aging fleet.

Tarsa said police cruisers should be rotated after five to six years of use, but because of the "magic" the Department of Public Works mechanics can do. He said they have allowed repairs to be made in house which ultimately saves the town money.

However, Tarsa said the repairs are becoming more substantial and over the last few years, three transmissions have had to be replaced.

"We have gone beyond the shelf life that allows the town to save," Tarsa said. "It's just like your own vehicle. When it starts to become a four-wheel money pit are you going to keep putting money into it?"

The two cruisers that would be replaced are both Ford Crown Victoria models more than 6 years old. They both have more than 105,000 miles on them. Tarsa said the mileage should be doubled because of idling time. Both these cruisers are front-line vehicles.

He said the cruisers would be replaced with Ford Interceptor models, which are basically Ford Explorers equipped with police equipment. These would be purchased with free cash.

He said the oldest car will be used as an unmarked cruiser, for transportation needs, and academy use.

He said Town Administrator Tony Mazzucco also requested that the department lower its fleet by one vehicle.

Tarsa said there would be a reduction of overall maintenance and mileage because only two officers would use the cruiser in its lifetime, which would instill a larger sense of pride in the cruiser and make it easier to manage.

He said the plan would save between $140,000 and $160,000.

Committee member Craig Corrigan was concerned about purchasing two cruisers at the same time because they would both age together. He believed it was counterintuitive to the yearly replacement plan.

Tarsa explained that the town has not stayed completely committed to a six-year plan to replace a cruiser each year; the two cruisers are needed now because the town has gone years without purchasing anything. He said the town has still found success in the partially utilized program.

The chief said he understood how tight the budget is, but urged the boards to purchase the cruisers for safety reasons. He added the town will have to purchase them at some point anyways and the prices tend to go up every year.

 "I have been talking to my officers about this; I have been hitting them with reality for the last several weeks with the budget and what's coming down the road," Tarsa said. "But … we are talking emergency services — you have to have proper equipment to get to the calls."

Tarsa asked if the town does not choose to purchase both of the cruisers this year that it do so in the next few years and increase the maintenance and tire budget by 15 to 20 percent.

Finance Committee member Paul Demastrie recommended writing a new cruiser into the operating budget every year as a constant.

"We shouldn't be arguing about buying two vehicles when we need them," Demastrie said. "We don't buy them when we can't afford them, but when we need them we have to buy them."

The police operating budget has seen a decrease of 3.44 percent. The budget went from $70,800 to $68,365. Some of these cuts were from gasoline and vehicle maintenance.

The public budget presentations have been held at the Adams Visitors Center. The regional school budgets have not yet been reviewed.

The personnel budget saw a 1.82 percent increase from $1,571,278 to $1,599,854. However, Tarsa said the overtime budget was able to be cut by $15,000 and the reserves budget by $5,000 because the department is now fully staffed for the first time in a years.

Tarsa was asked if he was comfortable with the decrease and he said there is no way to tell at this point.

"I have nothing to judge it by because the Police Department has been so short staffed for so many years," he said. "I don't have a true gauge of what the actual overtime should be."

Tarsa added the Police Station operating budget has also seen a decrease of 4.82 percent from $31,150 to $29,650.

Tarsa said the animal control budget is mostly level funded. He requested $200 be allocated to make some repairs and to weatherproof the dog pound.

"The pound has not been painted in several years, and it does need some TLC with a new coat of paint and some maintenance," he said.

He said the pound does see a fair amount of use and the town is losing money because it is so inefficient, with visible holes in the walls. He said it needs to be reinforced, too, because there have been break-ins.

"The thermostat in there looks like it came out of a house from the 1950s," Tarsa said. "It's so outdated and it's not efficient … it looks like it came out of 'The Brady Bunch' house."

Tarsa said he would do the work and is also looking into getting community service from the courts.

The boards agreed to re-evaluate the pound this summer. 

Adams Selectmen Continue Dog Hearing