The Lowell Sun
AYER, Mass. — Following a spate of long-lasting forest fires on the Ayer/Groton line during the summer, Fire Chief Robert Pedrazzi told the Finance Committee this week that he may need a reserve-fund transfer.
One firefighter is in rehab due to injuries suffered on the job. Another is off for his third military deployment in seven years. Then there were the brush fires, a couple house fires and a tire-yard fire.
Pedrazzi said he’s spent half of his ‘call,’ or standby, firefighter budget in the first quarter of the fiscal year.
“To see it half-gone in the first quarter of the year is not a good sign,” he told board members. “The brush fires consumed a lot of budget. I have to have coverage here. We can’t have everyone out in the woods.”
“I won’t know ‘til end of the year. I’ll know better in December if three-quarters of it is gone,” said Pedrazzi. It’s been a dry summer and fall and the risk of further forest fires exists until winter snows come.
Finance Committee Chairman Brian Muldoon said he and selectmen Chairman Rick Gilles sat down last week and worked out estimates for the upcoming budget cycle. The gloomy forecast, based on last year’s numbers and a projected 5 percent cut in local aid, was that the town would be "$1 million in the hole this year.” And, if a series of budget policies, recently endorsed by the selectmen as a set of “best practices,” were disregarded, the difference between the red and the black ink would shrink to $119,000.
Copyright 2010 MediaNews Group, Inc.
All Rights Reserved