Understanding the new BFPD Dispatch Arrangement After all the years of trustees and public members requesting the idea of outsourcing dispatch services for the BFPD and BFFD be pursued, it has finally come to pass. Hooray! Yet with internal department dispatch services reduced to only 60 hours a week(12 hours, 5 days a week, no weekends), the Municipal Manager states that a savings of some $100,000.00 will not be realized in this fiscal year. If not, why not? At 60 hours per week there is only enough work for 2 dispatchers, and not even a 40-hour week each. A part-time dispatcher would be required for illness, vacation, etc. What else is preventing an immediate savings in this fiscal year, just begun July 1? Union contracts, tenure issues? No savings until 2015? With that being said, it is important to note that this will not reduce the budget and therefore, our taxes in the village of Bellows Falls. A penny is approximately $27,000.00. A hundred grand is approximately 3.7 cents. With no benefit from this new program in the current year, do not expect this to give relief on your purse strings. Reconsidering the budget on Thursday, September 19th 2013 is the only real way to affect a change in the tax rate for this fiscal year, July 1, 2013 through June 30, 2014. The “new normal” of available funding makes smart, frugal use of tax dollars imperative. Don’t throw your hard-earned money away. Be at the Special Meeting of the Bellows Falls Village Corporation on September 19, 2013 to make your money talk…and send a message to the BFVC Board that they have a job to do.
Posted on: Thu, 05 Sep 2013 12:56:33 +0000