The Board of Selectmen this week endorsed a $3.26 million police department budget and a $2.45 million fire department budget for the next fiscal year, FY13, which begins July 1.

Fire Chief Kevin Nord presented his FY13 operating budget to selectmen Monday night. The salary line item of the fire department budget totals $2.197 million, which is $39,945, more than last year. This will fund contractual salary increases for fire department employees. Nord said the firefighters union’s three-year contract expires in 2013. In his budget, Nord wants to restore a second daytime administrator position, a vacancy that has remained unfilled since 2009 due to tight budgets. To help pay for this position, Nord is working with the firefighter’s union to replace a vacant deputy chief’s position with a fire captain position. 

The additional salary funding will also pay for overtime costs for paramedic refresher training, for filling the fire stations when both ambulances are on medical runs and for overtime for fire and other emergencies.

The expense portion of the FY13 fire budget totals $255,622, a $4,422 increase. According to Nord, the increase is needed to pay for the higher costs of ambulance billing, and vehicle, facility and radio maintenance.

Nord said the fire department responds to 2,300 emergency calls annually. Of these calls, 1023 were fire related (18 structure fires), 1,277 were medical emergencies and 878 were simultaneous calls, when both ambulances leave the stations at the same time.

In his budget presentation to selectmen, Police Chief Matthew Clancy said his department responds to over 5,000 911 emergency calls each year. The department also fields over 43,000 non-emergency/business calls annually. Touching on some highlights, Clancy said his police officers made 4,519 traffic stops in fiscal year 2011, and they responded to 272 accidents, 81 domestic disputes, and 43 burglaries including 17 at residences, 3 at commercial buildings and 23 to cars. The police arrested 205 people.

In his budget, Clancy is requesting over $3 million for salaries and $289,000 for expenses. This funding will allow the police department to fill long-standing vacancies for a few more extra patrol officers. Clancy said one has been hired and another will be done with the police academy and be ready to start soon. These new police officers will help reduce night-shift overtime costs. Clancy would like even more patrol officers to fill out the department’s numbers, but is happy that the hiring-freeze of past years has thawed and allowed the new patrolmen.

The FY13 budget will allow the continuation of programs that Clancy says have been working well such as community policing, including senior and student citizen’s academies, R.A.D. (rape aggression defense), the school resource officer, the D.A.R.E. program and camp, and the new Park and Walk program and Operation Nightwatch. Other successful programs that will remain are the canine unit, the police motorcycles unit and the department’s contribution to regional SWAT and search and rescue teams. Clancy is also planning to bring back the police mountain-bike unit.

Looking to the future, Clancy said he’d like to see enough money in the police budget to restore two additional police patrol positions. This would allow him to gain another detective. The department had three detectives in past years but it is now down to one. Also, Clancy wants to create a cyber-crime computer forensics position.

Three police cruisers are included in the police operating budget. Police cars are used so much they don’t last long enough to count as a capital expense, so they are listed in the operating budget. However, there will be one police capital item: a new, dedicated K-9 vehicle. This $35,000 vehicle will be a two-wheel drive SUV that is fully equipped for K-9, said Clancy.

The fire department capital budget includes $200,000 for a new ambulance to replace a 2006 vehicle; $450,000 to replace two pumpers or refurbish one pumper in order to extend the time between replacements; and $10,000 for a new thermal imaging camera that can show firefighters fire hidden behind walls or in attics or basements. Nord called the thermal imaging camera “a lifesaver.”