Williamstown Fire District Meeting Tuesday / iBerkshires.com

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The fire district will ask voters Tuesday to approve a budget for fiscal year 2025 that includes a 3.5% increase in the operating budget from the current year.

This is less than the 6.3% annual increase approved by members in May 2023 and, in dollar terms, adds $18,787 to the district's FY24 maintenance and operations budget. exercise 25.

The fire district meeting traditionally falls a week after the annual town meeting, where registered voters can give their input on the town's spending plan for the fiscal year that begins July 1. With the town meeting being pushed back to last Thursday this year, there is a smaller gap between the two.

As usual, the fire district meeting begins with the election of officers starting at 4 p.m. in the Williamstown Elementary School gymnasium.

Polls will be open from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. with two uncontested races on the ballot. Incumbents Lindsay Neathawk and David Moresi are each running unopposed to retain their seats on the five-person Prudential Committee that oversees the district.

Item 5, the maintenance and operations budget, is, as usual, the largest item, with a proposed expenditure of $542,901 for FY25.

Among the budget items with the largest percentage increases is the district's contribution to the Berkshire County Retirement System, an assessment the district receives from the BCRS board of directors. In the current fiscal year, the fire district had to pay $22,734; in FY25, this amount increases to $31,480, an increase of 38%.

Other notable increases include the cost of district insurance, which increases from $70,000 to $80,500 (15 percent) and the item for district volunteer firefighter stipends, which increases from $46,000 to 57 $210 (24 percent).

These increases are somewhat offset by a $15,000 reduction in the FY25 salary line, from $115,000 to $100,000, a decrease of 15 percent.

The second expense related to the mandate, if approved, would not come from new taxes but from the district's stabilization fund.

Article 4 aims to raise $420,000 in stabilization for a new “fire truck.”

At the May meeting, the committee heard about corrosion issues under the body of Engine 2 that are almost as bad as what the committee saw in photos of Engine 1.

Deputy Chief Michael Noyes told the Prudential Committee that the increased use of chemicals, such as calcium chloride, used to thaw roads has taken a toll on the department's machinery.

“I guarantee you the rescue truck will have a stainless steel subframe,” Noyes told the committee.

Of course, this material also drives up the cost of fire apparatus compared to decades ago, such as when the department purchased Engine 1 (2001) and Engine 2 (2006).

“Trucks are better built today,” Noyes said. “[Engines 1 and 2] are better built than trucks 30 years before them. »

The department uses equipment designed by one of the volunteer firefighters to wash the undercarriages of its vehicles after they hit the road, but it's a losing battle, Noyes said.

“Calcium chloride sitting on the frames just eats them away,” he said.

While the ministry plans to replace Engine 1 if spending from the stabilization fund is approved on Tuesday, it is awaiting a quote for the cost of refurbishing the new Engine 2.

“So we could have Engine 2 refurbished and, theoretically, take it beyond 30 years?” » asked Alex Steele, member of the prudential committee.

“It’s pretty much similar to what we did with Engine 3,” Fire Chief Craig Pedericini responded.

Several articles on the annual meeting mandate deal with special one-time expenses outside of the M&O budget and will be familiar to regular meeting attendees.

Section 6 calls for raising and appropriating $80,000 for the stabilization fund, the same level of funding approved last year. Section 7 requests $10,000 for communications equipment; equal to FY24. Section 8 requests $12,000 for firefighter turnout equipment; last year the meeting approved $10,000 for this expense.

Section 9 would reallocate the remainder of the $36,000 approved by the district's 2023 annual meeting from the purchase of automated external defibrillators and a CPR machine to the purchase of a decontamination washer for equipment personal protection.

And Item 11 requests $60,000 for the fire station project to conduct a design and value engineering review to meet the project budget. Last year, assembly members approved $70,000 for design work on the planned station on Main Street.

Separately, at Wednesday's Prudential Committee meeting, the panel learned that the district had received responses from four potential construction management companies for the new station. Proposals are due to the district on May 30, and the district selection committee has scheduled interviews for June 5.

District construction consultant Bruce Decoteau told the committee Wednesday that by mid-September, the district could have shovels in the ground at the Main Street (Route 2) site.

Keywords: annual meeting, fire district, fiscal year 2025,