Maine firefighters miss pay period with vote pending

The fire department is about $17,000 short, due to an increase in calls this year and other unforeseen expenses

December 03, 2010 04:50 AM

By Erin Rhoda
The Kennebec Journal

ANSON, Maine — The town’s 32 firefighters should have gotten paid Wednesday in a lump sum for their work the last year, but that didn’t happen.

That’s because the fire department is about $17,000 short, due to an increase in calls this year and other unforeseen expenses.

There were a record 200 emergency calls this year, the fire chief said. Tuesday was an example of the increased activity, with Anson firefighters responding to three separate fires in three towns.

It’s now up to residents whether to approve an increase to the fire department’s budget, so the firefighters can get paid.

Residents will vote whether to authorize transferring up to $17,000 from the town’s surplus account to the fire department at a special town meeting set for 6:45 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 14, at Town Hall, said Bob Worthley, administrative assistant and deputy town clerk.

The amount represents a $7 tax increase on a property worth $50,000.

On Wednesday, firefighters were supposed to receive payment for their year’s work, but the money isn’t available to pay them. Fire Chief Alan Walker said in his 10 years as chief he’s never overspent and, in fact, has always had a surplus. But this year there was no wiggle room in the budget, and the department encountered some unexpected expenses.

One of those unexpected expenses was the rise in number of calls, from about 180 in 2009 to 200 this year. Firefighters receive $9 an hour for calls, whether they are requests for lift assists, car accidents, chimney fires or house fires.

“I guess statistics prove throughout the year when there is economic downturn, there seems to be an upturn in emergency calls,” Walker said.

During the year, the fire department also bought about 1,000 feet of new hose, to replace hose that was disintegrating, Worthley said. And the department took 11 people through several weekends of training, during which they were paid for their time.

Neither expense was planned when officials were developing the 2010 budget, Worthley said. The department at the time had enough to cover expenses, but because payroll is determined at the end of the year, officials lacked a way to project future costs.

The requested $17,000 — of which $13,000 is for payroll and related taxes — makes up about 16 percent of the fire department’s $109,220 budget for 2010.

The town will have about $500,000 in its surplus account at the end of the year, Worthley said, enough to cover the fire department’s costs. No one will get paid until after the special town meeting, to make sure the money is appropriated.

The alternative to putting the increase before residents at a special town meeting? Selectmen authorize the payment without residents’ approval beforehand and then ask for residents to ratify the increase at Town Meeting in March. But in that case, if residents failed to approve the overdraft after the fact, selectmen could be personally liable for the money, Worthley said.

“The special town meeting is designed to avoid that,” he said.

In addition to an arson in Madison and a propane fire in Embden that burned a man’s face, Anson firefighters on Tuesday responded around 4 p.m. to an oil tank fire at Bacon Veneer wood yard in Anson. Residue oil in the bottom of a tank caught fire from a cutting torch, Walker said. The fire was extinguished quickly, and there was no damage.