Is this really what people want?

Has there EVER been an override that you did not support?

For those who voted no on the municipal override, how many of those people are willing to stand by and wait patiently for an ambulance in Lowell to make it there with a defibrillator?  We don't have an effective fire service, we don't have an ideal ambulance service either, so that leaves our police officers are the front line for police, fire and EMS incidents.  The magic window of response for a heart attack is 4-6 minutes.  Can this be done when the one patrol car we have out is at a domestic disturbance arresting someone?  People who voted no on this are willing to gamble with services that are ESSENTIAL.  These are not new text books we are taking about.  How much is it going to cost to rehire more officers in a couple years?  They'll need academy training as well as extensive OJT....

The vote sent a strong message to the officers who work here.  It said that we don't value their services, their work in building an effective police force for the town.  Having an officer out by himself is dangerous and to rely on neighboring towns is unreasonable when they have their own issues to deal with.

  I'm sick of hearing about people on fixed incomes who can't afford more taxes.  These are often the people who need these services the most.  No one likes taxes, I certainly don't but lets not turn down projects or opportunities that can generate income either. The constant anti development attitude in this town has prevented affordable housing for people over 55 and instead they must live in houses that are  hard to maintain and often carry a heavy tax burden.  But, the bottom line is that there is a certain level of public safety that must be maintained for the good of all residents.  If someone can no longer afford their house then decisions need to be made, just like other life decisions, you don't put the safety of all residents at risk in order to keep people in houses that they cannot afford.  We should be looking at other ways to address the burden on those residents, but not like this.

The big picture here is that Dunstable is not big enough and the residents are unwilling to financially support basic public safety needs, so what do we do?  I think it is time to take a more serious look at regionalization with other towns in the same boat, especially on the fire side of things.  

It's pretty sad when you consider that our police deptartment is already running on a shoe string budget and now many residents think we can chop more.  I think it's time for people to actually educate themselves before they vote.  I just hope these decisions do not have dire consequences for anyone.

I hope we come to some resolution because it is really worrying to see the current results.  Just with your example of EMT's, we had 3 heart attacks that I know of in town in the past few weeks, the police respond and eventually the rest.  If the police are off doing something else and nobody is there to cover, it isn't just about a speeding ticket anymore, it is a life :-( I wish we as a community can come to a realization that the world is changing and we cannot be independent and have it the way we want it at the same time.  Most communities around us have significantly higher taxes, although they usually offer more, they also have more than property taxes to drive revenue.  We are lower in taxes and have basically no alternative revenue that I am aware of, which is a bad combination.  I am not sure what the next steps are right now, but certainly willing to help out how I can.

Eric Naiburg

I agree. I know that Greg knows what he's talking about because that is his profession.

I dislike making this personal, but there are many folks who do not really know what our police force does because they have been lucky enough not to need them. But I have. And the people who say the State Police will patrol the town during the gaps? Really? How long is the response time and will they know us, will they know the areas most troubled? Do you really want to depend on that type of coverage?

I live 9 houses away from the NH border and before we had complete coverage, we had vandalism and theft here all the time. They always knew when it was "safe" to come into town. Years ago when the Chief was a patrol officer, he brought a bottle of Pediatlyte to me in the middle of the night when my daughter was ill with a 105 fever. And last summer when my other daughter totaled her car on Hardy Street, cell phone coverage was eratic and they had to look for her all over town. They also came and spoke to the kids about defensive driving/junior operating when they all thought they knew it all. Last year my youngest daughter was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes and we have had 2 emergency room trips.

How would YOU feel if your family member or close neighbor needed medical coverage, was missing or was a victim of a crime; how about a senior who lives alone? Think about it, the life you save may be your own.

As a Dunstable EMT, my son tells me that he has, on many occasions, arrived on scene ahead of the police department.

As a member of the Dunstable Volunteer Fire Department, my husband has been responding to fire calls for 37 years; in contrast to our well-paid police department, his yearly stipend was barely enough to replace the boots he destroyed in the last big brush fire.

While I think it important to support the very competent members of our police department, I think it's extremely counter productive to be denigrating the efforts of our Fire Department and EMT's in the process.

Joan Simmons

 

Nobody is putting down the efforts of our Fire Dept. or EMTs, they are all part of the overall system that we need in place and who do an excellent job today to support our community. 

 

Eric Naiburg

I completely agree and am sorry that it did not come across that way.  Our EMT's are professional, experienced and dedicated and they have helped us and many others in town.  We have had the EMT's here on several occassions and I rely on them, although they do not always arrive ahead of the police.  And I feel the same way about the fire department and spoke about that during the Fincom meeting (both nights, btw).  Reducing the truck repairs makes me ill.  I wrote about the police but my words should have been addressed to "Public Safety".  Some residents were lucky enough not to need the police in the "old days" when we didn't have coverage and feel we don't need it.  I disagree, having had to deal with vandalism, theft, and so on.    I also feel the library, roads and field services are very important to the core of our town, not wanting to slight anyone.  My hope is we can find a way to keep basic services and I hope a lot of voters show up tonight to address these concerns.  Thank you. 

Although there was some discussion of reducing the funding needed to repair the fire truck (Engine 2 - the old water tanker - circa 1980-something I think, not the new Engine 6), I believe the present budget proposal includes the full $10K estimated for repairs to the carburetor, leaf spring, and water leak.

Funding for the other article has been reduced to replace 3 instead of 6 of the 30-year old air packs that our firemen are currently wear when entering burning buildings. The "equipment" funding in the Fire Dept line item is slated to fund a long-range plan to replace some of the other outdated equipment, such as turnout gear; some will be replaced each year. 

Can someone explain how the vote tonight works ?

Do residents have a chance to vote on what gets cut/funded etc ?

 

 

 

This is about recognizing the need in retaining the minimal services that we have. Part of that is being able to recognize that much of our pubic safety in Dunstable is subpar. Do not misunderstand, it's not a matter of the personnel, but the organizational situation in regards to coverage, training and equipment. There's always going to be examples of an EMT beating an officer to a call but that's not the rule and it's not reasonable to expect a Volunteer to respond as quick y as a full-time, on duty public safety professional. The effectiveness of a volunteer fire dept when compared to a full time department should be quite obvious. That's why I say that our dept is ineffective by modern standards, but that's not the fault of it's members. The town gets the service it pays for.....

The whole point of having a Town Meeting is to give residents (who are registered voters) the opportunity to vote on motions that are put forth in response to the articles that are published on the warrant .

FinCom may propose a budget, but it is ultimately up to the voters at Town Meeting to decide on the budget. 

The Annual Town Meeting always includes a budget article (Article 2) for the purpose of having the voters establish the expense budget for the upcoming fiscal year, based on a budget proposed by the Finance Committee (FinCom). We typically do that with roughly the following process:

1. FinCom usually gives a presentation to help voters understand the "big picture" behind the budget detail.  
2. Then, a member of FinCom reads the list of expense line items in the  proposed budget to give voters an opportunity to flag any items they want to question.
3. Then, we vote to approve the items that weren't flagged to get that much of the budget approved.
4. Then (here comes the hard part), we work our way down the list of questioned line items one-by-one to allow voters to ask questions before we vote on each of the questioned line items individually. Sometimes, a voter will make a motion to amend (change) the motion on a particular budget line item, perhaps to change the amount, or possibly to defer action in some way... In that case, the town meeting participants must vote to approve or reject the amendment. If approved, we vote on the amended motion. If the amendment is rejected, we go back to vote on the original motion on that budget item.

Needless to say, this has the potential to be rather arduous... but it is work that must be done. FinCom takes their best crack at proposing a budget that will serve the best interests of the town based on months of work they put into understanding the needs of each department. They hold a public hearing each year where the budget is open for public comment, but I have never seen anyone show up (partly because it is not well advertised - there's still a lot of room for improvement in our communications).

While it is certainly possible to adjust a budget on a line item basis, I think it would be extremely difficult and confusing to attempt to do that on the Town Meeting floor, even in the easiest budgeting year, which this is not.  

I don't want to see core services cut (at least not for long). I believe we need to pass a smaller override. I think we're going to have to work with our town officials to get that to happen... but from where I sit right now, I (unfortunately) don't see it happening tonight. My hope for tonight is that people would express enough support for the services we value most to get a commitment from the Selectmen to pursue a smaller override as soon as possible... I would call for a ballot vote no later than the time frame of the special Congressional primary, which is scheduled for September 4. 

I am planning on being there tonight. 

Has there EVER been an override that I did not support?

Contrary to what you seem to be suggesting, I do not have a policy of blindly supporting any override that comes along. I support overrides only when I think they are needed.

If, after researching the issues and studying the budgets to understand what is driving the expenses and why that funding is needed, I come to the conclusion that the need for the override (in terms of benefit to the community as a whole) outweighs the impact that the override will have on members of our community whose finances are already stretched from thin to breaking, I will stand in support of that override. I have as much right to my opinion as you have to yours. We can discuss our views, but neither of us should ridicule the other for having a different opinion. I believe that is how democracy works.

I don't have any problem with anyone who votes no on an override, if they have taken the time to understand what they are losing as a result of their vote. Sometimes, they have no choice. They have to put their family's needs first.

The decision to support an override is never an easy choice. Tax increases have the unfortunate effect of driving some folks out of town who have given Dunstable its character. That is why I have supported any initiative that can help to take the load off of taxpayers, particularly taxpayers with limited income. However, those efforts have been few and far between. We need the leadership of this community to focus a lot more on those types of initiatives.

Someone pointed out that there must be something wrong, if they keep asking for overrides. I would agree with that statement, if we had repeatedly PASSED the overrides that were requested, but we haven't. In all the time that Prop 2-1/2 has been in effect, this town has only passed ONE operating budget override. It happened to be in support of the school budget.

If an override is really needed, and taxpayers vote it down, I believe our school and town officials are obligated to keep asking us for an override (or seek other sources of revenue) until they get the funding they need to serve the community's best interests. The need for an override does not go away when we vote NO. It only grows more urgent.

The 2-1/2% limit on tax increases set by Prop 2-1/2 was an arbitrary number. I don't think the legislators who built that limit into law ever intended for communities to never pass overrides. However, many people in this community seem to think that's the way it works... If the word "override" is in the question, they automatically vote NO - often without having any clue what they are losing when the cast their vote.

Kathy

I got a chuckle reading the balk talk comments in the Lowell Sun today.  Some people are either very ignorant or simply enjoy stirring the pot or maybe both.  One comment suggested the override is for portable toilets.