Saugus FinComm votes to cut school budget to pay for Fire Dept. overtime

SAUGUS – The Saugus Finance Committee voted 4-2 Thursday to recommend that Town Meeting further reduce the school department?s budget by an additional $100,000 in order to partially fund the Fire Department?s overtime account, which was cut by $420,000.Vice-Chairman Kenneth DePatto made a motion to recommend a $25.7 budget for the school, but that was rejected 4-2. DePatto and Thersa Katsos voted in favor.Finance Committee member Louis Rossi then made a motion to recommend $26.6 million, which passed 4-2. Rossi, Ronald Jepson, Carl Mirabello and Diana Tai Yan White voted in favor.?I think this committee doesn?t have the luxury of personal preferences,” said Rossi. “Our job is what?s good for the town financially. I have no horse in the race ? I?m not going to vote the full amount because I feel there?s more risk in other parts of the budget that the school department can share a little pain along with the rest of us.”School Committee member Arthur Grabowski told the committee that the cuts already implemented by Superintendent Richard Langlois will affect the schools without the additional $100,000 cut.?There was a lot of discussion last night with safety issues with the Fire Department and Police Department,” said Grabowski. “We?re looking at cutting busing. That puts children on the streets walking to school. That?s a safety issue. God forbid one of those kids in the middle of winter gets hit by a car.”The committee also voted to take $35,000 from the Police Department overtime account and move that into the Fire Department overtime account as well, leaving a total of $165,000 in the account.Saugus Fire Chief James Blanchard said the extra money should be able to keep the Essex Street Fire Station open through “probably around September.”Rossi also brought up the possibility of eliminating the proposed $370,000 library budget altogether in order to fully fund the Fire Department overtime, noting “the risk in the Fire Department is much greater than the need at the library.”?If it were my personal preference, I wouldn?t want to close the library,” said Rossi. “From a financial standpoint ? I wouldn?t have a choice.”However the Committee voted 4-2 to recommend the original budget with Rossi and White voting against.Library Director Diane Wallace said closing the library would be “very shortsighted.”?What kind of a community doesn?t want to have a library?” asked Wallace. “We can?t say we dragged a kid out of a burning building, but there are kids being inspired in that building everyday”In other business the committee voted to recommend referring the arbitration awards for the firefighters union and the patrolmen?s union to the next Annual Town Meeting.The committee voted to accept the rest of the budget as proposed by the Board of Selectmen, and Town Meeting will have the final vote on the recommendations on Monday at 7:30 p.m.Matt Tempesta can be reached at [email protected].