Thompsonville Fire District Commissioners Pitch $5.1 Million Budget To Taxpayers

ENFIELD – Thompsonville Fire District commissioners have proposed a $5.1 million budget for the 2015-16 fiscal year, up nearly $900,000 from last year’s budget.

Commission Chairwoman Colleen Reidy said Friday the increase is due to expenses that should have been addressed in previous budgets and other accounts that were created for future capital expenditures funding.

“Some is catch-up, some is moving forward,” Reidy said Friday.

Some of the catch-up expenses include funding to move firefighters into the new fire station on North Main Street (about $97,800) and $400,000 toward the firefighters’ pension fund. For several years leading up to 2015, $1.7 million in pension money for firefighters has not been allocated, Reidy said. The commissioners have said in previous meetings that they are investigating what that pension money had been used for.

Among the “big increases” for next year, said commissioner Mark Magistri, are the new fire station’s mortgage, replenishing a municipal investment reserve account the district may have to “dip into” to make it through July 1 to Aug. 15, and the pension funding.

“Last year the overtime expenses were only funded $50,000, which is totally inadequate. This year it’s bumped up to $125,000,” Magistri said.

Commissioners have said in previous meetings that several expenditures outlined in the budget would be considered one-time costs, and wouldn’t carry over into future budgets, like maintenance of the Pearl Street firehouse and new hire expenses.

“We know the big numbers but we’re not sure how it’s going to play out. It’s going to take a year to see where the dust settles,” Magistri said.

New to the budget this year are two placeholder accounts set up for capital expenditures and large purchases, Reidy said. Currently, no funds are available in the event the fire district needs to buy new equipment or wants to buy new apparatus, she said.

The new $5.1 million budget, if approved by taxpayers in May, will see a mill rate increase from 7.25 mills to 8.86 mills.

The district has announced a series of meetings as the commission works through the budget. The next meeting is scheduled for Monday at 7 p.m. at the Thompsonville Fire Station, 11 Pearl St.

The public hearing on the budget is scheduled for April 30 at 7 p.m. at the new firehouse, 35 North Main St. Commissioners will hold a follow-up meeting May 1. More information is available online, http://enfield-ct.gov/301/Thompsonville-Fire-Department.