Orrington considers full-time fire chief

ORRINGTON – The town-run Fire and Rescue Department was created in October 2005, and now town leaders are considering making the part-time fire chief post into a full-time position.

Now they want to know what residents think of the idea.

Town leaders “want to hear from as many residents as possible,” Town Manager Carl Young said Tuesday.

Residents can call selectmen individually or e-mail the town manager at orringtonmanager@roadrunner.com, or they may voice their opinions at Monday’s budget hearing.

The meeting begins with the school’s budget hearing at 6:30 p.m., and the town’s budget hearing is directly afterward. Both will be in the cafeteria of Center Drive School.

Young has heard from some residents. “My take is that they’re very supportive of the idea. They’re in favor of equitable” compensation for firefighters.

The proposal before selectmen is to add $32,000 to the Fire Department’s budget, increasing it from $177,000 to $209,347, which would give firefighters a raise and make the part-time chief full time.

“It would basically mean a $2 raise” for firefighters, Young said. “All the other departments, Public Works and police, are fully funded and [the proposal would] bring them up to an equal level to the other departments.”

The town manager said it’s not fair that deputies and snow plow operators make more than firefighters.

As the town grows, “inevitably, we’re going to need a full-time department,” he said. “What we have now is not broken, but with the way Orrington is growing … we can’t expect [firefighters] to continue to respond at only slightly above minimal wage.”

If the full-time fire chief position is approved, that person would be the full-time health officer, the emergency management director, and the town’s safety officer-coordinator, Young said. And the budget lines for those positions have been reduced to zero in the draft budget, he said.

“For $209,000, we get 24 employees, two full-time personnel, a station, six trucks and an ambulance to protect the community,” Young said.

Draft figures show a combined total budget of approximately $8.88 million, on increase of approximately 4.5 percent over this year, with draft budget figures of $6.1 million for the town, an estimated $350,000 for Penobscot County and $2.4 million for the school budget.

“The [preliminary] budget projected comes in under LD 1 and is not going to create a significant mill rate increase,” Young said. “The projected mill rate will be 11.84 [per $1,000 in property value], and we’re at 11.25 right now.”

In addition to the proposed changes with the fire and rescue department, the community policing supervisor also is asking for a new cruiser for his growing Police Department, at a cost of $25,000 to $29,000, which would be a warrant article if approved by town leaders.

Selectmen also are considering paying off the remaining $110,167 loan for the River Road sewer project using the North Orrington School sale for debt reduction account, which would save the town around $26,000 annually. They are also considering creating two reserve accounts for capital infrastructure and highways, using undesignated funds.

Selectmen will hold their final budget review on April 14, which is when they will decide what will be presented to residents at the annual town meeting in June.

nricker@bangordailynews.net

990-8190