Antrim town department heads have started hammering out its proposed 2017 budgets, which were presented to Select Board members during a regular meeting Monday evening.
Board members scoured the proposed budgets for the town clerk, Police Department, library, cemeteries and conservation departments.
Only minor changes have been made to most departments, although Chief of Police Scott Lester proposed slightly increasing his department’s budget.
Much of the increase to the police force would come as a result of hiring a permanent part-time officer. The department has five part-time positions, although it has only been able to maintain two consistently.
Hiring a permanent part-time employee would help alleviate stress placed on full-time officers who are dealing with a spike in felony-level crimes, Lester told board members.
“Although we’ve stayed steady with the amount of calls for service and caseloads, we’re seeing more serious crimes,” Lester said.
Those more serious crimes are a direct result of the drug epidemic, he said.
“We do have a statewide problem, and it’s more of a national problem with the drug epidemic,” Lester said. “It has hit Antrim and it has been hitting Antrim for some time now, so we are devoting a lot of time to that.”
Taking on a permanent part-time employee would ensure officers are out patrolling the roads, Lester said.
“The part time-officer would supplement the patrol duties so that the full-time officers handling the investigations could have more time to focus on investigations and not worry about getting a certain amount of mileage out on the road,” Lester said.
Preliminary budgets will continue being ironed out in subsequent meetings.
A final budget will be voted on during Town Meeting.
The board appointed a new emergency manager and assistant emergency manager, after the town’s emergency manager moved out of town.
Select Board members unanimously approved the appointment of Fire Chief Marshall Gale to assume the position.
“I think it’s good to have a first responder in that position because they know it,” said Bob Edwards, a Select Board member.
The board also appointed Town Clerk Diane Chauncey to the emergency management director assistant position. Chauncey said she has held the position before, which mainly consists of writing Federal Emergency Management Agency grants when disaster strikes.
Abby Kessler can be reached at 924-7172, ext. 234 .