ATHOL – At last Tuesday’s Selectboard meeting, Town Manager Shaun Suhoski provided a rundown of his proposed FY24 budget, but it wasn’t a line item that generated the most debate.

Included with the $23.6 million budget was a handout which stated, “…a proposed $895,000 request to increase staffing in the Fire Dept. by eight full-time personnel is contingent upon an override of Proposition 2 ½.”

Suhoski went on to inform the board that Fire Chief Joseph Guarnera would make a presentation in support of the override at the meeting on April 18. If approved, the override would result in an increase of $191.66 to the average property tax bill.

The town manager provided a general outline of how the override monies would be spent. The breakdown included just over $681,000 for personnel and other costs related to the collecting bargaining agreement with the town’s firefighters, nearly $157,000 for dental and health insurance and approximately $58,000 in retirement assessments. In a previous presentation, the chief said the population of Athol has jumped from approximately 10,800 in 1980 to just shy of 12,000 as of 2022. The number of full-time firefighters has fallen from 24 in 1988 to just 19 at present. That translates into four firefighters covering each shift, compared to five 25 years ago.

Two board members, Kala Fisher and the newly-elected Brian Dodge, let it be known they were not happy to be seeing the information for the first time.

“On the fire department, there was a committee that was supposed to review the staffing issues, and we haven’t seen a report about any of this,” said Fisher.

Fisher said she heard of this proposal two weeks ago “from the grapevine,” instead of from an official report. Suhoski explained that the panel reviewing staffing in the department included two members of the Selectboard, the chair of the Finance and Warrant Advisory Committee, the fire chief, the president of the local firefighters’ union, a member of the Capital Program Committee (CPC) and several ad hoc members.

“Why did the chief bring it before capital (planning) bringing it here,” Dodge said. “Capital doesn’t deal with personnel.”

Suhoski said Guarnera needed to be at the CPC meeting to answer any questions regarding FY24 capital requests for the department and took the opportunity to discuss the override proposal.

“And if it goes forward, there will be a special election for an override?” Dodge asked inquired, “Or are you going to put that on an annual elections so we’re not paying for another (election)?”

Suhoski explained that the board can put an article on the Town Meeting warrant for the proposal.

“The Town Meeting can’t mandate that you call an election,” he said. “But if it’s the will of the people, presumptively you would call that special election.”

That special election, if Town Meeting endorses the override, can’t take place any later than Sept. 15, according to Suhoski.

Board member Rebecca Bialecki, who served on the Personnel Review Committee, explained that Guarnera’s decision to present first to the CPC was just a matter of timing.

“The presentation really just got wrapped up and fine tuned and put together within the last couple of weeks,” she said. “I haven’t even seen the presentation yet myself…We didn’t want to get it confused with the budget because it is a separate item. So, the budget came tonight and the next meeting we have scheduled for that (override) presentation.”

Dodge reiterated that the CPC has nothing to do with personnel and the matter should have come before the board first.

“I know it’s my first night, but from what I read, $895,000 should have come here first for discussion,” he said.

Fisher added the board should have seen “at least some kind of report or something that we could see more about this before all of a sudden it’s thrown at us that we’re going to be going for an override.”

Suhoski reiterated that Guarnera would present at the board meeting on April 18.

“It’s been talked about pretty openly for three months, so anybody that’s surprised – it’s news to me,” he said.

Greg Vine can be reached at gvineadn@gmail.com.

]]>