Town officials representing their departments presented their Fiscal Year 2027 budgets to the Select Board at its meeting on Jan. 28.
Chief of Police Nick Secatore said the FY27 operating budget for the Police Department will remain the same as FY26, and there were no additions to this area of the budget.
The department did, however, request a 3% increase in its contractual obligations line item, Secatore said.
Additionally, the department requested funds to be allocated to the purchase of police cruisers to “keep the fleet where it is.”
He added, “In order to keep it there, we need to replace cars at about two a year.”
Secatore said the department has fallen behind in replacing vehicles over the last two years, but he anticipates adding additional vehicles, should the funds be allocated to the department.
Secatore said he credits the department’s minimal requests to the new police station.
“We have the building, the new building, which has given us a lot of things that we would need to request that we don’t. So we’re really in a great year. We just (need to) add on the contractual obligations, and we’re in great shape,” he said.
Fire Chief Glenn Davis has most of the increases in the budget for FY27 allocated for contractual obligations.
When discussing capital projects for the department, Davis said, “Fire departments are expensive,” and that he had multiple requests for improvements to the department.
These projects include a new motor for Fire Engine Two and refurbishing one of the department’s ladder trucks.
Davis said he is requesting $135,000 for the refurbishment.
“A brand new ladder truck costs probably today about $2.5 million, and they’re almost two years away to get one. If we put this $135,000 into this, it’ll replace all of the hydraulics, all of the electronics on it, make it last us at least another 10, hopefully 12 to 15 years down the line.”
In his presentation, Superintendent of Schools Tom Geary presented a 4.3% increase in the school department’s annual budget.
Geary said his budget is driven by a 3% increase for all salaries.
