Town's budget for fire suffers
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By PATRICK McARDLE Herald Staff - Published: December 6, 2008
ARLINGTON — Firefighters in the town are concerned about what they can spend, with delinquent taxes causing a deficit to the town's budget of about $245,000 with less than a month until the end of the fiscal year.
Arlington Fire Chief Jamey Paustian, who has been chief for five of the last six years, said he can't remember another time when the department has been asked not to spend money from its budget.
In Arlington, which runs its fiscal year by the calendar year, there has been an unusual amount of delinquent taxes in 2008. While the amount of overdue taxes at this time of year has usually been about $100,000, it had been about $314,000 recently, according to Arlington Treasurer Linda Crosby.
Almost $70,000 has been collected in the last few weeks but the town has still not paid about $63,000 in voter-approved appropriations and has yet to allocate about $107,500 into voter-approved sinking funds because of the delinquencies.
Crosby said the portion of taxes collected for the school district has been paid in full.
Paustian said he and other members of the Arlington Fire Department attended Monday's Select Board meeting because they were concerned that with the spending freeze, some of their equipment was being neglected.
According to Paustian, the department received permission to spend about $6,500 of the $11,000 in its budget for nozzles and hoses.
The Fire Department had planned to buy some stabilization jacks, used to extricate people trapped in vehicles, but Paustian said that was probably going to have to wait until next year.
Paustian said there were concerns about the maintenance needs of the department's Yamaha Rhino, an all-terrain vehicle used by for rescue efforts in wild terrain, especially as snowmobile season approaches.
The Vermont Association of Snow Travelers helped the department buy the Rhino and Paustian said the assistance carried an obligation that the department maintain the vehicle.
The department also needs a new computer to enter incident reports required by the federal and state government. Paustian said the department's computer can't even run the report program and that members have to use their own computers.
Arlington Select Board Chairman Keith Squires said the town was forced to institute a spending freeze because of the amount of delinquent taxes.
According to Squires, the Select Board and the Fire Department worked together on Monday and "pared down the fire department requests to a manageable list."
Cynthia Browning, vice-chairwoman of the Select Board and a member of the Vermont House of Representatives, pointed out that the problem didn't come from the firefighters overspending or requesting a large budget this year.
"They've been very careful with their existing cash but they're laboring under mandates from the state and federal government and sometimes they're expensive to meet," she said.
Paustian said increases in insurance and gas drove up the department's budget this year and probably will next year as well. The budget also includes the cost of fire hydrants which have been increased this year.
According to Paustian, members of the Fire Department will attend the next Arlington Select Board meeting to see if any more of their budget has been freed up but after the end of the year, the Select Board and Fire Department will have to consider what will happen to budgeted items that couldn't be purchased this year.
Contact Patrick McArdle at patrick.mcardle@rutlandherald.com.
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