Cuts felt by town heads
Published on March 10th, 2004
STONEHAM, MA - Shouldering well over half of the approximate $2 million in cuts proposed under Town Administrator David Berry's budget, the town's three largest municipal departments defended their budgets at the past two Selectmen meetings.
Proposing to cut the equivalent of 35 full-time workers from the town side of the budget, nearly 40 percent of those personnel losses will occur in the police and fire departments.
And with those layoffs amounting to the elimination of 21 police and firefighters, Police Chief Gregory O'Keefe and Fire Chief Lawrence Lamey endorsed one common message: these cuts greatly compromise the safety of the general public.
"In the last 2.5 years, with the cooperation of the police officers, we've run a shift with three police officers. Losing 10 officers, we'd be running 1 to 1.5 officers on the street per shift," explained O'Keefe, who cut a municipal high $593,231 from his department.
"How do you provide services to the town with 1 to 1.5 officers on the street? It's just too easy to tie up the entire police department, that's why I pushed hard for the three officers," the police chief added.
According to O'Keefe, with Stoneham unable to provide mutual aid to surrounding communities, he expects that Stoneham's neighbors will be unable to provide the service in return, creating a huge liability for the town.
"It not only creates a safety hazard, it's going to create liability issues. Who's going to come? It's just the officer and whoever's out there," O'Keefe warned. "It's going to create a situation where [an officer] thinks gun before anything else. And I can't say I blame them, these guys want to go home to their families at night too. You put them in a situation where there's only one person out there in a town of 22,000 people, you're going to have a problem."
In addition to running a skeleton street patrol, the police chief told the Selectmen that the town's safety officer and DARE program would be eliminated along with all other proactive office activities.
While O'Keefe sympathized with the board for the daunting task ahead of them and understood the reluctance of citizens to support an override, he sees the town as having little choice.
"I live in this town and I realize it's a town -- all the money can't go to public safety. I think this community needs to come together," O'Keefe remarked.
"I realize nobody wants to face an override, and I don't want my taxes to go up either. I don't have kids in the schools anymore, so I could easily say that I don't want to pay for that. But I live in this community and care about his community and it's just the right thing to do," O'Keefe said.
Facing $436,149 in reductions, the fire department will eliminate 11 firefighters, resulting in the loss of one engine company for the entire year.
Explaining that his department typically responds to calls with three vehicles manned by eight officers, Lamey predicted that response times could jump three-fold from four to 12 minutes if simultaneous emergencies occur.
"Quite frankly, when people are under stress and they need help, even with a three to four minute response time they say, 'what took you so long?' At 10-12 minute response time is going to be trouble, but with one less piece of apparatus, something has to give," Lamey remarked.
While the increased response time is a great concern of the fire chief, Lamey considers the loss of mutual aid and perils to firefighter safety the worst aspects of the cuts.
"The most critical aspect of losing this type of personnel will be our ability to give and receive mutual aid. It just wouldn't be prudent to send out a piece of apparatus if it strips our ability to respond to emergencies," Lamey said.
"Firefighters are a unique bunch of people, and I believe this from the bottom of my heart -- they will continue to try to do the best they can under the circumstances. But I'm afraid personally that it's going to lead to people getting hurt," Lamey cautioned.
Claiming that the fire department technically runs understaffed with eight firefighters running three pieces of apparatus, the fire chief proudly boasted that his staff's professionalism and field knowledge makes up for the current understaffing.
However, with the proposed cuts, Lamey warned that firefighter training programs would be eliminated, undercutting one of the most effective tools utilized by the department.
"For the most part, with eight people, we could do a pretty bang-up job. These guys really know what they're doing. And that goes back to the training. Training is one of the most important things we in the fire department do. I think that [without it], it will have an effect on our ability to be efficient," said Lamey.
Characterizing his department as the one service residents use on a regular basis, Department of Public Works (DPW) Director Bob Grover cut $440,000 from his office under Berry's budget.
While the DPW will only lose the equivalent of one full-time worker by slashing summer help, Grover will shoulder a net loss of three workers by leaving two positions vacant.
In addition, by transferring six DPW workers into the water and sewer budgets, which are supported by water and sewer bills, there will be very few remaining road, sidewalk, drainage, and park staff.
"The net effect is there's going to be six less people working in the public works section of the budget.
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