A contingent of firefighters attended Wednesday’s Board of Selectmen’s meeting to ask for restoration of $6,600 that was cut from its 2025-26 budget request.
The $9.2 million proposed municipal budget currently includes $125,750 for the fire department.
After discussion, First Selectman Matt Riiska said he would confer with Board of Finance Chairman Michael Sconyers, adding that restoring the money would increase the expected 22.49 mill rate only fractionally.
A proposed budget can be reduced or increased following a budget hearing (Norfolk’s took place April 29), but the figure presented at a town meeting cannot be increased. Norfolk’s town meeting is May 11, and any additions would have to take place this week and be posted quickly.
The firefighters complained that Riiska had not given them notice of the reduction. “That conversation never came down the hill,” said Fire Chief Brian Hutchins.
The department has six new members, all of whom will need turnout gear and training and fire chief Brian Hutchins said two trucks need extensive repairs. “That amounts to two sets of turnout gear; that’s one truck’s repairs.”
Riiska countered that the budget was presented in public meetings and had been posted online for more than a month.
During budget preparation Riiska cuts where he believes numbers can be reduced. With only two months left in the fiscal year, 25 percent of the fire department’s budget is unexpended.
NVFD President Paul Padua said that many of the department’s expenses are incurred at the end of the fiscal year. “We spent two hours going through projected cost increases and came up with a responsible budget, which we presented to you,” he said.
Last year, $17,000 worth of fire department bills were not submitted by the end of the fiscal year and the payment was rolled over into the 2024-25 budget. That, combined with the budget cut this year and escalating costs since Covid, is creating “a snowball effect” in the department’s ability to keep up with mandated costs, Hutchins said.
First assistant fire chief Matthew Ludwig said additional cost increases are pending in more mandates from OSHA.
The firefighters noted that the company has received a half-million dollars in grant awards for apparatus over the past couple of years to help control costs. “We’re doing our due diligence,” Hutchins said.