Wrentham Police, Fire Present Level-Funded Budgets to Finance Committee

Wrentham's police and fire departments presented level-funded budgets to the town's Finance Committee Monday night.

The police and fire chiefs, along with Department of Public Works Superintendent Irving Priest, were present to speak about their respective departments.

Police Chief James Anderson said his department is still understaffed, but in a better position than previous years.

"We're keeping our head above the water," he said.

Anderson gave a staffing update on his department.

"The good news is two of our new recruits graduated from the academy last Friday, and they started Sunday," he said. "The bad news is I still have one officer out on long-term disability."

The additional officers help the department keep overtime costs down, Anderson said.

"With additional officers, we can have more shifts," he said, adding that the new officers mean more department personnel will be available throughout the day.

Selectman Michael Carroll asked about replacing the department's patrol cars. Anderson said that was done through the capital budget.

"We have an aging fleet right now," Anderson said. "This year so far, we've been doing well in terms of maintenance."

Finance Committee members also asked about the department's full-time information technology position, and if money could be saved by standardizing IT throughout the town.

"I think that needs to be high on our to-do list," Chairman Jerry McGovern said. "We've got people working on 10-year-old computers."

Town Administrator William Ketcham said standardization is a long-term effort for Wrentham.

"The ultimate goal will be having a full-time or part-time computer technology person," he said. "Very often, public safety departments move faster with IT than the rest of the town, mostly because they need it."

Fire Chief Jay McMorrow said the department's budget is without frills. He said the department is expanding, with one firefighter being trained at the academy.

McGovern asked about emergency calls to the Wrentham Development Center.

"We're down to $20,000 in pilot money from the state school — it used to be $350,000," he said. "They've increased the population there, which will likely lead to more frequent calls."

McMorrow said the center pays about a third of what the department usually collects for ambulance calls.

McGovern said the local state representatives should be made aware that the state has drastically cut aid while increasing demands on local services.

McMorrow also spoke about the 911 regionalization study with Norfolk and Plainville.

"We're all doing so much mutual aid now," he said. "This way, [the dispatchers] are going to know where everyone is."

He said he was unsure whether the project would yield any savings, though.