2021 Thetford Town Meeting
We recognize that 2020 was a challenging year for all with the pandemic and 2021 will continue to be challenging for much of the year. With that our Board of Trustees, who manage the business of the department and appoint the fire chief, worked hard to create a lean budget with as little increase as possible. Additional challenges though have been presented with the change in town meeting format to an Australian ballot. We definitely see the need for this from a health and safety perspective, but not being able to speak to the articles and answer questions is a concern.
This year, the Selectboard shifted the separate warned article of the fire capital fund into article 8, the fire dept annual appropriation. With this change it appears that the fire department budget went up 52.40%, that is a false percentage and is due to this combination of two previous articles. While this makes sense from an auditing perspective for the town, it is a concern this year with little opportunity to explain it and answer questions.
The other concern is that State statute does not provide for continued operation/spending if the article is voted down and a new vote would need to be scheduled by the town. It is unclear what that would mean for fire dept operations during that time period.
This year, the Selectboard shifted the separate warned article of the fire capital fund into article 8, the fire dept annual appropriation. With this change it appears that the fire department budget went up 52.40%, that is a false percentage and is due to this combination of two previous articles. While this makes sense from an auditing perspective for the town, it is a concern this year with little opportunity to explain it and answer questions.
The other concern is that State statute does not provide for continued operation/spending if the article is voted down and a new vote would need to be scheduled by the town. It is unclear what that would mean for fire dept operations during that time period.