By Ezra Silk
KeepMEcurrent.com
NEW GLOUCESTER, Maine — The New Gloucester Board of Selectmen has reversed course, agreeing to increase a fire department stipend after setting a self-imposed guideline last fall not to increase stipends this budget cycle.
In his annual budget request, Gary Sacco, chief of the New Gloucester Fire & Rescue Department, requested additional money in order to increase the pay for fire and rescue department training sessions and monthly meetings during which personnel also perform truck inspections. While rescue department personnel receive $10 payments for their meetings and $15 for training sessions, fire department personnel receive $10 payments for both. Sacco requested money to increase the payments to $15 across the board for both fire and rescue personnel.
Yet, in their initial budget proceedings, the selectmen only approved the increase for rescue department staff, angering members of the fire department, who believe the $10 payments for trainings and meetings is too low. Sacco’s request for a $5,060 increase in the fire department stipend was rejected. At a budget committee hearing on March 24, 10 members of the fire department showed up to call on the board to restore the additional $5,060 in Sacco’s fire department stipend request.
Full story: Selectmen reverse course on firefighters’s stipen