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| Abington police, fire departments feeling effects of rejected override- Abington Mariner |
Wed. Nov 18th 2009
ABINGTON -
The recent rejection of an override proposal in Abington means one thing—cuts to all departments in town. And while much has been said about cuts to the school department, public safety officials are stressing their departments are now feeling the effects of the economic pinch.
At the Special Town Meeting at the end of October, voters decided against the override, opting to cut $30,000 from the police department and about $39,000 from the fire department.
On Tuesday, officials made it known that Fire Station 2 on Rockland Street was being closed in light of budget cuts.
?The economic crisis has forced the Abington Fire Department to close the station at 5 Rockland St., built in 1973,? Fire Chief Arthur Pelland stated this week. ?The closing of the fire station and reduction of staffing levels from five personnel on duty to four personnel on duty is needed due to the recent vote of Town Meeting.?
Pelland said he always has maintained ?a five-man shift,? that is, five people have always been on duty at a given fire station.
?If anyone was ever out, we could cover that with overtime,? Pelland said, adding there is no overtime pay anymore.
Now that the department is being forced to reduce to four-man shifts, not having that overtime creates a problem, Pelland said. He explained on a given call, two firefighters usually ride on the engine and two usually ride in an ambulance.
Typically, a fifth firefighter would be left at the station to cover incoming calls. But that won’t be the case anymore. Pelland said people who have emergency calls may be forced to wait until firefighters return to the station.
Furthermore, with the closing of Station 2—which covered the south side of Abington—will add to the department’s response times in emergency situations.
Pelland explained all firefighters will now work out of Station 1, located on Route 18 in the north side of town.
?We won’t be able to respond as quickly to the south side of town,? Pelland said. ?Getting to a call within four minutes is the national standard. If a fire breaks out in the south side of town, our response time will be more like four to eight minutes.
?This is what Abington voters wanted, but it makes it hard for us to provide a good, safe service for everyone in town. It’s going to be tough. And next year looks just as bleak.?
Police Chief David Majenski said he was funded for 30 officers back in 1998. Currently, he has 24 officers on duty. Three officers recently transferred to other towns ?for a variety of reasons from pay to workload,? Majenski said.
He added with 24 officers, it’s going to be tough to handle the issues in town, as crime has increased over the past 10 years.
He said in 1998, with the 30 officers, the department handled 9,278 service calls and made 638 arrests. But time has changed since then, Majenski said. These days, there are a lot more violent crimes in town and there is also a heroin problem in Abington.
Majenski said last year, the department handled 29,931 service calls and made 1,011 arrests.
?And this year, with six weeks to go, we’ve handled 22,500 service calls and made 1,093 arrests,? Majenski said. ?The numbers just keep growing.?
He added the $30,000 hit to his department means less personnel to handle the growing issues in town. Majenski stressed he has been trying to convey the importance of retaining core services for the past 10 years, adding this current situation did not just happen overnight.
?We don’t want people to think that we’re not going to do our jobs because we have less resources,? Majenski said. ?What we’re saying is that people in town need to identify their priorities. The people voted at Town Meeting and I understand that. I’ve been thinking of that old adage—an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. I think this department has gone from proactive to reactive.?
Majenski said officers who functioned as detectives are in plain clothes now. That means that a lot of investigatory work, or ?follow-up work,? will not be done in a lot of cases.
?And that’s how a lot of cases are broken—through investigation,? Majenski said.
He added in terms of patrols around town, he has a sergeant, a supervisor and two patrolmen to cover 10 square miles. He said the sergeant will be doing a lot of administration work during a given shift, so it’s really like having one less on duty per shift.
?And we’re getting calls through the roof,? Majenski said. ?It really is a concern. We need to stay on top of the criminal element in town because once it is able to infiltrate, it’s almost impossible to get rid of.
?Our officers have been working as hard as humanly possible and they will continue to do so. But I think they’re beginning to come to terms with our inability to keep up with the demand.
?We’re truly at a crossroad right now. Townspeople really need to take a good hard look to decide what is important to them.?
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