Dudley's fire chief said he had to cut two full-time firefighters and dozens paid-on-call firefighters due to rising costs with the community's school district.
In May, Dudley's budget was approved but there's an over $865,000 gap and the town is making cuts in other areas, including public safety.
“The additional cuts meant I lost two full-time firefighters, approximately 30 call members, and that left me with two men a shift, me and a deputy,” Fire Chief Dean Kochanowski told Spectrum News.
“Basically, I can get one ambulance on the road or a two-man engine company, which is extremely unsafe," Kochanowski said. "I won’t send any of my men into a burning building with two guys.”
Taxes have provided less than a three percent budget increase for the town but the school's 17 percent increase has taxed the community's budget, despite two votes to bump the school budget.
“The school district, with their current assessment being a double-digit increase and with the additional $867,000 dollars the school committee sent back to us, that’s a 17% increase over the last three years,” Selectman John Marsi told the television station. “On the town side, we have a 2.49% increase over the last several years as well, so you can see it’s out of balance there.”
Schools Superintendent Stephen Lamarche attributed the rising costs to inflation.
Firefighters from Dudley and the region will attend Monday's select board meeting to raise awareness to the dangers of the cuts, according to a statement from the Professional Fire Fighters of Massachussets.
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