NAUGATUCK — Police and fire officials have laid out their budget requests for the coming fiscal year.
On Monday, Police Chief Christopher Edson presented the police department’s 2018-19 budget request of $7.27 million to the Board of Finance. The proposal is a decrease of $59,234, or 0.81 percent, over this fiscal year’s budget.
The largest decrease in the plan comes in the retirement payouts account, which is set to drop by $129,222, or 43.8 percent, to $165,640.
Edson said seven people retired from the department this fiscal year and he’s only expecting a maximum of four retirements in the coming fiscal year.
The payroll account is also decreasing under the plan. Payroll drops $35,768, or 6.5 percent, to $5.45 million, under the proposal.
Edson said the decrease is due to younger, lower paid officers replacing those who retired.
The decreases were offset, in part, by a request for an additional $100,000 for overtime, which would increase the overtime budget 15.4 percent to $750,000.
Edson said the increase reflects a more realistic amount that the department needs.
The medical supplies account is increasing $1,371, or 15.2 percent, to $10,371 under Edson’s proposal. The increase is due to the rise in the cost and need for Narcan, also known as Naloxone, which is a drug used to treat opioid overdoses.
“We are using Narcan at a higher rate than we ever thought we would,” Edson said.
While the police department is seeking less funds, fire officials presented a $4.48 million request in January that would increase the fire department’s budget by $124,309, or 2.8 percent, over the current fiscal year.
The largest proposed increases come in payroll and overtime.
The request is seeking $37,665, or 1.4 percent, more for payroll, which would bring the total to $2.74 million. Under the proposal, the overtime account would increase by $30,999, or 2.9 percent, to $1.1 million.
Fire Chief Ellen Murray said those increases are due to contractual salary increases.
“We’ve done our best to hold the budget where it was,” Murray said.
Budget deliberations will continue over the next couple of months as departments continue to submit their requests. The Joint Board of Mayor and Burgesses and Finance are scheduled to adopt the 2018-19 budget on May 17.
