Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.
Date: 3/7/2022
BELCHERTOWN – Across two meetings on March 1 and March 3, the Belchertown Select Board and Finance Committee met with department heads across town to begin discussions for the Fiscal Year 2023 (FY23) budget.
During the initial budget sessions, the boards met with department heads from the Police Department, Department of Public Works (DPW), the Fire Department, the library and more.
The first department to present their budget was the Police Department, and Police Chief Christopher Pronovost said costs were up across the board, including for ammunition.
“Ammunition has gone up literally 10 times the amount we used to pay for a box of ammo, we are required to shoot more now because of the training requirements but the cost of it was through the roof and we cannot even get it, we are still waiting for ammo we ordered last year,” he said.
One part of the budget includes a shift in money to the full-time account from the part time account due to staffing changes.
“I requested a transfer from part-time money into full-time wages simply because we do not need that part-time cost anymore, the small amount that is left in there basically covers part time dispatchers. We do still try to utilize part time dispatch because that in itself creates its own challenge to keep that place staffed, and that is getting increasingly harder to do,” Pronovost said.
With a $6,000 request for body cameras, Pronovost said that was a result of the police reform bill passed in 2020.
“There is some disagreement at the state level on protocol for using them but once they are mandated, we will have to buy them. We broke it down because $6,000 gives us two cameras and then we used some money in the technology fund and ordered four cameras. We are hoping there is some grant funding so hopefully that is money we will not need,” he said.
During the Fire Department’s budget discussion, Chief John Ingram said expenses were going up across the board.
“Everything is going up [a] minimum of 20 percent to 25 percent, a box of gloves used to cost us $60 and now it costs $260, it is unbelievable the rate has gone up so much, so that is where the majority of the increases are coming from. Maintenance on our vehicles will go up, partly in anticipation of the new ladder truck and other annual inspections,” he said.
One part of the budget Ingram said he would like to solve before the new fiscal year is hiring a deputy fire chief by combining the salary of a firefighter that resigned along with some part time money.
“We have a lot of moving parts and we really need to have for safety and a succession to have a deputy chief to assist me with the day-to-day stuff, with emergency management planning to taking some of the things off the captains’ plates so they can go out with their crews and do more planning,” he said.
While the department is waiting on the decision for the its application for the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grant, Ingram suggested setting money aside to hire two more full-time firefighters.
“We are waiting to see if those six positions which are free to the town at no cost for three years, it is very competitive so we hope we will get it, but it is not guaranteed. One thought process I had was if we were to put it out there that in the event, we do not get the SAFER grant we could set money aside to hire two additional firefighters if we do not get it,” he said.
One area DPW Director Steve Williams said there would be an increase across the board is fuel prices.
“Heating oil has increased $30,150, our propane budget has gone up $5,695, our electric budget is going to increase $15,700, our gasoline budget is going to increase $13,200 and diesel fuel is going to increase $30,450,” he said.
Despite the initial projections, Williams said those prices could continue to increase resulting in even higher costs.
Among the DPW’s requests was to add hours to one of the administrative positions.
“I am looking for an additional six hours for my part-time assistant, that would bring her from 19 hours to 25 hours. The problem we have is that at 19 hours per week she only works four days a week, and we are incredibly busy, we are processing $5.5 million worth of invoices, we do all the cemetery record keeping, we track all the utilities, even the utilities for gasoline and diesel fuel in all the other departments, we have annual reports across the board,” he said.
Williams added the salary would increase by about $7,900 per year with an additional cost for benefits totaling a near $18,000 increase toward the budget.
Looking toward the future with capital planning, Williams said there were going to plenty of projects coming up for discussion in the future including new vehicles, work across many of the town’s buildings and other paving projects. He said one of the largest projects is a federal project to redo Main and North Main Streets which is valued at over $5 million, which would be reimbursed but the town would be required to pay over $600,000 for a feasibility study.
With budget meetings still waiting with Belchertown Public Schools and Pathfinder, the boards agreed to wait to discuss the entire budget until after those meetings.