The Lincoln fire and police departments criticized budget cuts that could reduce public safety staffing, disrupt fire service contracts in other towns and even block the fire department from entering burning buildings.
Conservative town councilors passed a $9.9 million budget by a 4-3 margin Monday night, 12.8% down from the previous year’s budget. Discontent over high taxes has forced towns across Maine to consider cuts, but none have gone as deep as Lincoln has into core services that also prop up many of the small communities across the region.
The cuts have sparked outrage in town, launching a recall bid last month and clogging Facebook with protest posts. On Monday, councilors in the majority disregarded warnings of dire service disruptions.
The fire and ambulance department may need to lay off between four and eight of its 20 employees, Capt. Ken Goslin said. That could make it difficult to use more than one of the department’s three ambulances at a time and may leave the fire department without enough people during shifts to safely respond to building fires.
Federal labor rules require firefighters work in teams of at least four when responding to a building fire. One pair can enter, while another must remain outside to assist. While volunteers can help, none of the department’s six are trained for interior fires. The nearest fire department that aids the town is 15 minutes away, Goslin said.
“We would be waiting,” he said.
As the biggest town in its region, Lincoln responds to fire and ambulance calls across a wide swath. It is contracted by the smaller towns of Winn and Chester for services. Service disruptions could push those towns to look elsewhere, which would cut off revenue from Lincoln. Less effective participation in agreements with other communities could also pressure towns to charge more for agreeing to back Lincoln up.
Lincoln police Chief Lee Miller said in a Tuesday statement that his department, whose budget was cut by nearly 19%, would face “significant challenges.” For now, he said he hopes the department can stave off cuts but said vacant positions will go unfilled for the foreseeable future.
“The most expensive police department is one that experiences preventable injuries, excessive turnover, avoidable liability, and operational failures because it lacked the resources necessary to succeed,” he said.
Officials from the two departments made their opinions well known over recent weeks, and found an ally in Town Councilor Gordon Street, who pushed the majority to accept more modest cuts on Monday. But the four conservatives, led by Vice Chair David Ireland, did not budge.
One of the conservatives, Councilor Eric Rojo, dismissed town officials’ concerns as “emotional screaming” and believed the fire and ambulance department would be able to maintain services through creative shift scheduling.
If cuts do end up disrupting services severely, Rojo said the council majority may consider a supplemental budget. But he said the large cut will force department heads to separate expenditures they need to operate from what they want.
“We’re not closed-minded, we’re just keeping our promise to the people who elected us,” Rojo said.
Daniel O’Connor is a Report for America corps member who covers rural government as part of the partnership between the Bangor Daily News and The Maine Monitor, with additional support from BDN and Monitor readers.