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Assistant Managing Editor EAST LONGMEADOW In a time of bare-bones budgets, the public safety departments in East Longmeadow have not escaped big cuts. Last week, E.L. Police Chief Doug Mellis and E.L. Fire Chief P. Robert Wallace had the unpleasant task of cutting, collectively, about $200,000 from their departments, scaling back services and personnel to which this growing town has become accustomed. "We're probably going to have to lay off two police officers, unless a miracle comes through or funding we're not aware of," Mellis said. "I've been doing the math [to reach the required $131,000 cuts in order to fund the police department at the same level as FY04 despite increased costs] ... and unfortunately we have to lay off two full time police officers and demote a current sargeant back to patrolman." This leaves the department with 14 patrol officers, six sargeants, and one chief, Mellis said. He said the decision to cut two positions came from the fact that, if the department only eliminated one, they would not be able to meet their budget number due to the unemployment costs associated with laying one officer off. "If you lay off one officer, you have to lay off another to pay the unemployment compensation," he said. He added that he doesn't feel the department can afford to lose two additional officers. "In 1974, when I started with the Longmeadow Police Department, we had 31 police officers," he said. "East Longmeadow had 29 [officers] with a population of 10,000 ... in 2005, we will soon be 21 officers with a population of 16,000 ... we went up in population by 6,000 but we're down eight men [from previous years' staffing]." With health insurance costs increasing, Mellis said even those officers who still have jobs are actually "$8 in the hole," because their recent, contracted, four percent raises were less than the increased health insurance rates shared between the town and the officers. "I started [this job] March 30, and this is not something I envisioned happening here," he said. "I envisioned developing a detective bureau ... increasing the size of the department. Those plans are nixed for now. In preparation for next year's budget I have to be aware of the potential with the lack of state money back to cities and towns I need to formulate a 'what if' scenario." Mellis said he is currently working with the police union (the International Brotherhood of Police Officers or IBPO) to work on ideas on how best to staff the East Longmeadow Police Department. "We still need officers out on the street answering calls," he said. "We still have to answer staffing concerns ... it's not like we shut the lights off at three in the afternoon and go home." *** If you've dealt with Fire Chief P. Robert Wallace, you will have noticed lately a big change in his usual positive attitude. Last Wednesday he shared his department's cuts with The Reminder. "We had a request from the Board of Selectmen that all department heads under the Board and all bargaining agents attend a meeting last night ... they gave a bottom line level-funded budget from last year's budget, no matter light, heat, phone, vehicle repair [costs] ... I had to adjust from within." Wallace said he trimmed every single item in the department's budget. He eliminated: call officer bonuses, stipends for fire fighters who also serve as EMTs, quarterly officers meetings, training funds, fire prevention funds, fire education funds, and eliminated required physicals for all on-call fire fighters. "I fine-tuned everything I could down to the penny," he said. "I've been here for 34 years and I was at the lowest point of my life last week ... we're losing one fire fighter tomorrow at 5 p.m. ... he's aware of what's going on and he'll be handed the letter." Wallace said the demands on the Fire Department are two-fold: to serve as a fire protection agency, and to serve as a Homeland Security agency. He said the town has added 140 new houses this year, and also has and is adding "massive factories ... stores ... traffic." "Every other department is being affected, too, so we have to work as a town here and that's the hit I'm taking," he added. The total cuts to the Fire Department were $49,404. | ||||||
