RUMFORD — Selectmen on Thursday night approved a 2011-12 municipal budget recommendation of $6.8 million.

If it is approved by voters, it means personnel cuts, Town Manager Carlo Puiia said Friday afternoon. It also means reduced services and less hours to meet public needs for all affected departments.

“The difficult part will be in absorbing the energy cost increases and the commitments to the union contracts that the board signed,” he said. “We’ll have to absorb that, which means a reduction in operational costs.”

The selectmen’s recommendation of $6,814,258 is $514,459 less than department heads requested and $270,376 less than what Puiia recommended.

It’s also $162,924 more than the current budget.

Puiia said the bottom line is actually $6,697,090 after subtracting $39,745 in revenue sharing, a $57,851 decrease in county taxes and an increase of $19,572 in a tax increment financing agreement with the gas plant.

“In the past (selectmen) have supported the town manager’s budgets, and in this case they did not,” Puiia said.

“So, it will be interesting to see the (Finance Committee’s) recommendations, and they may or may not agree with the board. But I think the board certainly held the line, so they may be in agreement with a lot of these numbers.”

Puiia said the board’s reduced recommendations for police, fire and library will “definitely” mean a reduction in personnel.

Selectmen OK’d recommendations of $805,000 for police, $678,000 for fire, and $200,000 for the library, all of which were only a few thousand dollars each above current budgets.

Selectman Jeremy Volkernick, a former Rumford firefighter, urged fellow members on Thursday night to reconsider their recommendation for fire. Its only increases were wages, fuel and extra money to hire call-force members.

Volkernick said the department is now down to a three-man shift. That means, he said, when they arrive at a structure fire, they cannot enter a burning building to rescue people or try for a quick knockdown.

“This is crucial,” Volkernick said. “Townspeople need to know what they’re losing.”

Police chief Stacy Carter said there would be a decrease in service, but he would make the adjustments to his department should voters and the committee side with selectmen.

Among reductions, he said he’d have to cut the lone school crossing guard, adjust dispatch hours, not cover any illnesses or vacation time, and reduce training.

“I just hope that the citizens will understand that we’re not going to be able to respond as efficiently or as timely as we usually do, and with a hope and a prayer, nobody will get hurt,” he said.

“I just find it sad that the board through contract negotiations agrees to wage increases, yet refuses to fund them, not one year, but now two years and reduces the budget without the go-ahead of the people,” he said.

The reduced budget for the library means its hours may be cut even further than they are now from last year’s $40,000 budget reduction, Puiia said.

“They’ve reduced budgets for some of these offices, so you can’t have the same number of working hours,” Puiia said.

“Again, it remains to be seen, because we have to see what the Finance Committee does and we have to see what the voters do, but I think it’s pretty clear that … there’s going to have to be some changes made to meet the reduction in funding.”

tkarkos@sunjournal.com

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