DALTON, Mass. —The Fire District started drafting its preliminary budget for fiscal year 2025 during its meeting last week. 

 

The district has been tightly budgeting the last three years in an effort to keep the taxes down but prices are continuing to increase so this cannot continue, Water Commission Chair James Driscoll said.

 

The district's free cash has run dry, so it is time to start budgeting healthily to cover the cost of operations and build the free cash back up in emergencies, while also being reasonable to taxpayers, Fire Chief Christian Tobin said. 

 

Driscoll emphasized that it is very early on in the budgeting process and things will change as more information comes to light. 

 

Once the district has a clearer picture of its proposed budget, it plans to hold a meeting in April at one of the town schools to educate the community and spark a conversation with residents. 

 

"We can hand out packets there, so now they have another 30 days to digest what we're giving them before they show up to the annual meeting in May," Driscoll said.

 

"I think it'll be more beneficial and I think we can really start to put together a budget that not only gets us through the next fiscal year, it gets us to the next fiscal year with money leftover so we are not hand to mouth every year trying to get through it."

 

The meeting will demonstrate to residents what the fund covers every year and that if they decide they do not want to pay the price, voters also need to determine what services they want cut, whether it's not having an ambulance or fire truck during certain hours, Water Commissioner Camillus Cachat said.

 

Attendance at annual Fire District meetings is often low, which the district aims to improve.

 

"It's a hard place to [explain the budget in detail] at the annual meeting because you're there to walk down the fact that this is the money we need. And the [attendance is] low. We don't get huge turnouts, but the dollar values are getting higher," Driscoll said. 

 

A lot of residents concerned about the rates increasing often attend the annual meetings and are vocal about it, he said, but the people who are in support of the budget don't attend. "So [the annual town meeting is] not the place that we educate, because we don't have the time nor means to do it there." 

 

The district is a separate governmental body from the town and budgets for debt services and the salaries and expenses of the administration, Water Department, Fire Department, and ambulance. 

 

Last year, district voters approved an approximately $3 million budget that had increases between 4 and 19 percent for its line items. More information here. 

 

These were the largest increases they had for many years for the sake of taxpayers, Driscoll said in a follow up. 

 

A quarter of the department's budget is for mandates that are outside of the district's control and are required to keep the doors open, Tobin said. 

 

In fiscal year 2024 voters approved the ambulance budget for $703,506 and a Fire Department budget for $597,837. 

 

Together, the ambulance and the Fire Department budgets are both projected to increase to approximately $1.6 million. 

 

The district took over the ambulance services three years ago when the firefighters' association gave it up, Driscoll said. 

 

The district has been trying to determine the cost of operating the ambulance so that department has a separate budget from the Fire Department. 

 

Now that they have a clearer picture of the ambulance services' operating costs, Tobin wants to combine them under one budget to streamline the budgeting process. 

 

District Clerk and Treasurer Melanie Roucoulet agreed, especially when it comes to budgeting for the salaries of the ambulance and fire staff. 

 

The salaries are one of the biggest areas of concern, she said and that combining them under one line item may help adequately budget for salaries. 

 

When doing payroll, Roucoulet tracks whether department employees are being paid as firefighters or emergency medical technicians so a record is kept.

 

Several expenses in the administration budget are expected to remain the same. In fiscal year 2024 the district budgeted $5,000 for an office assistant who works on call. 

 

The office assistant has been working more hours than anticipated to help with Roucoulet's workload. 

 

Next year's draft budget includes $10,000 to cover the additional hours, bringing the projected total to $15,000 for this position. 

 

The district is determining if hiring an assistant treasurer also is a feasible option. A job description and number of hours need to be determined. 

 

The FY24 insurance line item is $26,915. Roucoulet is unsure how group insurance, Medicare, unemployment, and workman's comp will impact the budget until the new position's job descriptions and hours are determined.

 

The Water Department line item is mostly staying the same, but Superintendent Bob Benlien is requesting a $30,000 line item for meters. The district will continue to budget for meters until all the meters have been changed, Driscoll said. 

 

Benlien also requested an increase for overtime by another $10,000 projected at $50,000.