Derry fire, police get operating budgets approved and look into additional projects

DERRY — New positions are being made available at the Derry Fire and Police departments, including a new position of K-9 police officer.

The Derry Town Council extended its annual budget meeting to Saturday, April 6, during which they heard from Fire Chief Shawn Haggart and Police Chief George Feole.

The main concern the councilors addressed with the two chiefs was recruitment efforts. Councilor Jack Webb, a former Derry Fire Department officer, said he wanted to know what each group was doing to make working in the services more appealing to younger applicants.

As of right now, the fire department has 10 vacancies, including seven firefighters, one investigator and one paramedic. Haggart explained the dip in applicants as a national problem.

“That issue is being faced across the country, more specific to Southern New Hampshire,” Haggart said. “There’s a decrease of people entering public service, but the issues are magnified to Derry because of a geographic position.”

For the fire department, it’s more challenging to find people who want to serve as both a paramedic and a firefighter, or as just a paramedic, said Haggart. Part of the funding for FY25 will go toward training a current firefighter in emergency medical services, or hiring a paramedic and training them in firefighting.

Feole said the police department is currently at 58 out of 60 positions filled. In the coming year, he hopes to add one more officer position so the department can have one current officer become the handler for a second K-9 patrol.

“I like the fact that the staff is as close to full that I’ve ever seen it, that I can recall,” said councilor Jim MacEachern.

“I’m a proponent of making sure we do things in town right.”

Overall, the two departments received unanimous funding for the 2025 fiscal year.

The fire department will receive a total of $10,400,762 for prevention, management, training, and other expected costs. The police department received $11,040,663.

In addition to the current projects the police have going on, Feole said there are additional funds coming for special projects, like body cameras, being funded by federal grants.

Feole said there is an additional $586,000 set aside for Derry by the U.S. Congress to fund the body camera program.

In addition to that, Feole said there is a second grant Derry is partnering up with neighbors to ask for an update in their records systems.

“We submitted that for $1.75 million, and that is a regional approach including Derry, Londonderry and Windham, to upgrade our records management and CAD software,” Chief Feole said.

“If each individual community was to approach these projects, it would cost [each] over $3 million. My hope is it is going to be viewed favorably by congress because of that regional approach.”