DALTON, Mass. — The Finance Committee voted last week to amend the Police Department expenses line item decreasing it from $190,741 to $183,541. 

 

Following the amendment the committee voted to approve the new budget total in the amount of $1,501,152, a 11.4 percent increase from the previous year. 

 

The amendment removed a $900 a month line item for fiber connectivity so that it can be placed in the proper budget. 

 

American Rescue Plan Act funds were used to upgrade the dispatch system because dispatch could not hear the Police Department.

 

"We worked hard to upgrade their system so we could communicate with them because it was an immense officer safety issue," Police Chief Deanna Strout said. 

 

"As you all can imagine, if they're on calls and they call into dispatch and dispatch can't hear them. So dispatch wasn't really moving fast enough in my opinion to get it done so we did. That's where we ended up."

  

Prior to the installation of the system, the vendor quoted the cost of the installation but did not include the monthly fee because it is with a different vendor. 

 

"When we did all the quotes, nowhere in any of these quotes, was that built in. So, we were basically failed by the vendors, in my opinion, that never told us there was going to be this connectivity fee," Strout said. 

 

"We did not know that, we wouldn't have known that and then suddenly we see this bill after the system's installed."

 

If the town does not pay the monthly fee the separate vendor can shut them down. 

 

Finance Committee chair William Drosehn noted that when the fiber connectivity was initially brought to the committee, it was suspected a fee like this would come up. 

 

The fiber connectivity is part of a project that will run between Town Hall, Council on Aging, Pine Grove Park, and the Highway Department.  

 

The monthly cost will go down by $300 if the town completes the line to run down Park Avenue. 

 

The hope is that the town is able to get a grant to cover some of the costs of these upgrades but if the line item is placed in the wrong budget, there is a chance it may hinder getting the grant.  

 

The committee agreed that this is a needed system due changing technologies; it is just a matter of determining which budget it would fall under. 

 

Members discussed whether it would make sense to place it in the Information Technology budget or the Phone/Email/Internet budget. 

 

The Phone/Email/Internet budget covers the costs of the town's telecommunication systems, making it the best place for the fiber connectivity costs, Town Accountant Sandra J. Albano said. 

 

It was noted that the name of the budget does not reflect its purpose so it should be changed in the future to reflect modern-day technology. 

 

The item will be added to the Phone/Email/Internet, also referred to as the Telecommunication budget, at a future meeting. 

 

The department was not aware of the fiber connectivity fee this year so to prevent going over budget even more, some $14,000 for new equipment was not used. 

 

"We felt it would be irresponsible for us to spend money that we are already over our expense budget so we did not purchase any new equipment this year," Strout said. 

 

They did budget $14,000 for new equipment for next year. 

 

The reason for the increases in the budget includes contractual salary increases and stipends for the officers in addition to new costs for community policing programs, the comfort dog and K9.

 

The officers are receiving a stipend for body cameras because it was not included in their contract. 

 

"It is a huge change and it's a lot of training. It's a lot of extra time because now they have to review these cameras, and they have to write the reports based on the footage. So it's a lot more work that they're taking on," Strout said. 

 

"And again, it's in the police reform bill, but there's no deadline to it. We just got out ahead of it because we knew we could get funding for it if we were ahead of ourselves."

 

The union initially requested that it be added to the salaries but agreed to accept a stipend so it will not affect any other benefits, saving the town a lot of money in the end, Town Manager Tom Hutcheson said. 

 

The committee also voted to decrease the Animal Control budget by 1.36 percent bringing the total to $30,647. The salary line item decreased because the new animal control officer makes less money than the previous officer.