OLD TOWN – The police department soon will have one less officer on its force because of budget constraints.

Patrolman Seth Burnes, who has worked for the department for four years, began working in March with the local schools in an attempt to decrease drug and alcohol use by teens.

His position is funded by a grant through the River Coalition and the Maine Office of Substance Abuse as a partnership with the Old Town and Orono police departments, but that money is running out.

“This is one position that will not be filled due to budget restrictions now or in the future and will simply be deleted from the department,” City Manager Peggy Daigle wrote Monday in an e-mail memo to councilors.

As a result of the funding shortage, Burnes will go back on patrol, and Officer Mark Egan, who had the least seniority, has resigned and taken a job with another local department.

Egan had anticipated that his position probably was going to be eliminated and sought employment elsewhere, city officials explained.

“By union contract, the last hired will be the first to go,” Old Town Police Chief Don O’Halloran said Monday.

Egan is slated to start Aug. 29 at the Hampden Police Department.

The work started by Burnes through the Community Trial Interventions program to develop community strategies to reduce alcohol, tobacco and drug use in the two communities is expected to continue.

Coalition officials have applied to the Office of Substance Abuse for additional grant money, but the grant amounts have decreased since the previous award and aren’t guaranteed for next year.

“At this point, it looks like we’ll still be cooperating with the police department; there just won’t be another 40-hour a week officer in that position,” River Coalition Executive Director Michael Crooker said Monday.

Potential grant funding to continue the program has decreased from about $100,000 to $55,000, which wouldn’t support a full-time officer in the school.

“There is still work that needs to be accomplished from this grant, and [Officer Seth Burnes] will continue to work with the River Coalition until the end of September or when the grant is exhausted,” Daigle wrote in Monday’s memo.

Burnes has been working on setting up meetings during which area business owners will talk about some of the issues they’ve been facing with teens either stealing or buying alcohol. Those meetings and other efforts, such as making the consequences for providing to minors more visible to store patrons, are expected to continue.

“We’re going to still work very close with [the River Coalition] doing programs with existing personnel,” O’Halloran said. “They’ve got some real good things going and we want to be part of that.”

The city manager said she realized the change would cause some disruption within the department, but noted that over time it would “settle out.”

“Personally and professionally, it is always difficult to do a reduction in force and lose an employee, but municipal financial circumstances do not allow us to keep special staffing in the departments,” Daigle wrote in the memo.