BUCKFIELD — Selectmen have postponed outlining a plan to cut services from emergency providers until residents meet later this month. 

The decision halts formal recommendations on how to cut $52,000 from the Rescue Department’s budget, made in light of voters taking up the issue on whether to restore the funding at a special town meeting Aug. 27.

“We don’t know what voters will decide,” Town Manager Cindy Dunn said. “Where it’s three weeks away, selectmen will wait until after then.”

Rescue Department Chief Lisa Bennett warned previously that unless the funding is restored, she will be forced to cut positions and scale back the hours emergency crews can cover the town. 

At the annual town meeting in June, residents voted to remove $51,585 from the department’s budget, leaving town officials scrambling to find how to implement the cuts. 

Dunn and Bennett submitted a proposal last month, rejected by selectmen, which would have eliminated night and weekend emergency service, reduced Bennett’s salary by $1 an hour, cut half of all medical supplies and eliminated about one-third of all personnel training. 

After selectmen rescinded their vote to hold a special town meeting, a citizens’ petition to put the issue before voters was submitted with a valid number of signatures two weeks ago. 

The petition asks voters to reconsider their decision, though it does not name a sum of money to be restored. 

The town broke ground on a new $1 million Fire-Rescue Station about a month ago. The 80- by 100-foot station next to the Municipal Building on Route 117 will replace the former 60-year-old station, which was torn down.