BELLOWS FALLS — In reviewing 2010 budgets for the Village of Bellows Falls, the Village Trustees faced a challenge: how to cut 30 percent from the Police Department budget without losing coverage.
Interim Municipal Manager Francis “Dutch” Walsh, in implementing a request from both the Selectboard and the Bellows Falls Village Trustees to look into shared dispatch costs between Springfield and/or Hartland, asked Police Chief Ron Lake to describe the impact such a cost-saving measure would have on his department.
Walsh said Lake estimated the impact according to his budget and believes it would mean elimination of four full-time police officers and a reduction in the 24/7 patrol shifts. Walsh further determined that the 30-percent reduction would mean a $117 decrease in taxes on a $100,000 dollar home. Trustee Scott Falzo noted that Bellows Falls rates among the highest of officers per capita at 2.41 officers per 1,000 residents.
Bellows Falls Trustee Stefan Golec noted that he does not want to “cut coverage” but wants to find ways to continue coverage while cutting back on costs. “If we can save by outsourcing some coverage and dispatch, we should look at it,” he said.
Without associated overhead costs such as health insurance and vehicle maintenance, Golec noted that there very well could be a significant savings from contracting a portion of police services to either a county sheriff or the Vermont State Police.
Resident Andrew Smith reminded the trustees that at one point in the past, coverage beyond the Village limits for the town of Rockingham by the Bellows Falls Police Dept. was billed to the town at a minimum of $200 per call. Documentation of calls to Rockingham has been instituted to try to determine the nature and number of actual calls the police respond to outside of the Village.