After failed budget 3 years running, Alton to hold Special Town Meeting in June for new proposal

ALTON — For three years running, the voters at Town Meeting shot down the proposed budget, resulting in leaders resorting to the default budget, putting staff in difficult situations. Town leaders have since been working on a revised budget to bring to voters at a Special Town Meeting in early June.

The selectboard unanimously voted Tuesday to hold a Special Town Meeting to vote on a revised budget that shows a 4.1% increase over 2025, instead of the 10.9% increase the town voted down March 10. This decision brings the town back to Square 1 of the budget process, with a budget committee meeting scheduled for Wednesday, April 8.

The revised budget is $10.1 million. If voted down, the town will adopt a default budget of $9.8 million, which is about 3.4% lower.

This revised budget is $659,576 lower than the one proposed at Town Meeting.

Town Administrator Ryan Heath said with the board’s approval to bring the revised budget before voters, it “100% mimics the original process.” The voting session must be held between 28 and 60 days after a deliberative session, and the town needs to post the budget for 14 days before a deliberative session can be held. This means the vote on a new budget will likely take place at the beginning of June, with a date and location to be named later.

Heath said town leaders want to make it convenient for voters. There have been talks about holding the vote on a Saturday to make it easiest, and draw the largest turnout possible.

“We want as many voters as possible,” Heath said.

But getting people to the polls wasn’t the problem, as Heath said the March 10 town elections were well attended, with 1,092 ballots. Heath said any count over 1,000 voters is solid, after a couple of years that averaged between 700 and 900 voters, due to inclement weather. The vote on the operating budget failed 504-551.

Most of the increase in the proposed budget was personnel. There were four, full-time firefighter positions, as well as two, part-time Town Hall employees, approved at last year’s Town Meeting as a separate warrant article, through the end of the year. Those positions were included in the 2026 proposed budget, along with merit raises for employees who have been neglected the past two budget cycles.

That budget increase proved to be too much for voters, but town leaders couldn’t stomach going back to a default budget for a third straight year. Instead, Heath worked with department heads to revise a budget that includes pay raises for current employees.

The revised budget includes two full-time firefighter positions, and two Town Hall part-time workers who have less of an impact, as they don’t receive benefits.

“This budget includes the positions that are currently occupied,” Heath said. “What this budget is doing is securing the active employees, meaning we wouldn’t have to lay anyone off.”

Police Chief Todd MacDougall spoke at Tuesday’s meeting, and said the two lines affected by the revised budget are full-time wages and holiday pay. They have a school resource officer, and decided not to hire a second one. The police department is covering by rotating a duty officer to have a presence at the school instead.

He also said there are two patrol officers who gave notice they are leaving within the next two months, and another patrol officer is retiring in June. He said it will take at least two months to hire replacements, and after talking with the finance department, they settled on a six-month window they won't need to pay associated salaries.

MacDougall, asked if coverage was OK, said there is a “hardship, but feeling good.”

Fire Chief James Reinert said two areas initially cut in the proposed operating budget were full-time and holiday wages, to not fill two open positions. He said his department is aware everyone is fighting for the same dollar, but he wanted to stump for his firefighters, who he called “a dedicated bunch.”

“We want to ensure that we are trying to provide the utmost, best, professional, quickest response to the community,” Reinert said. “One of the factors that hinders us sometimes is one of the greatest things about this community: we are a geographically large area. Almost 90 miles of land and water, so it puts us behind the 8-ball in our response times initially.”

What was considered full-time staffing for 2025 was the bare minimum, he said. The town needs to have two licensed emergency medical personnel on an ambulance to transport a patient. The original warrant article budgeted two full-time personnel, and the department would have used on-call firefighters to assist. He said the hope was to bring a third person on to assist with larger incidents, as well.

Out of 1,211 calls last year, the fire department had 713 medical calls for service, and 73% were ambulance transports, and 7.5% were overlapping calls.

“I would ask, respectfully, to at least look at funding three of those four,” he said. “That would give me the ability to have eight full-time personnel, two per shift on our four shifts, and we’d still try to utilize the per diem staff to fill any of those vacancies.”

While the revised budget includes only two of the four full-time fire department positions, amendments can be made at the deliberative session.

At Tuesday’s selectboard meeting, Fire Capt. Patrick O’Brien said while he understands the decision to restrict budget funding to ease the tax burden, he noted “the single largest tool in our arsenal is staffing.”

O’Brien said they put their lives on the line, and while not driven by pay, proper tools are needed to complete their mission.

The fire department has exhausted all staffing models over the past 20 years to avoid full-time staffing, he said. Due to growth in calls and decline in volunteerism, there is a need for two full-time, career firefighters in the station.

“Sadly, our call volume is increasing at a rate that we cannot catch up with, forcing the request of four additional, full-time firefighters last year on the ballot,” O’Brien said. “This was supported, despite the rising costs we have all faced, proving the community truly believes in our mission, and more importantly, our firefighters.”

He said municipal budgets are confusing, and he thinks many didn’t understand voting down the proposed budget would lead to cuts to the fire department. O’Brien said he strongly supports passing a budget to retain and fill the positions.

Steve Lydon, of Dobbins Way, has 38 years of career firefighting experience, and his son-in-law is a firefighter, and daughter a police officer, and is a strong advocate for public safety. He understands “everyone is handcuffed” financially right now, but since he moved to town six years ago, has seen a transient fire department because of turnover.

He pointed to a recent situation where there were two medical calls at the same time, saying the town can’t rely on mutual aid companies for day-to-day operations. Speaking from personal experience, he said he witnessed a lot of what works and what doesn’t, and he offered his advice and assistance.

The board was criticized by former Chair Reuben Wentworth, who said bluntly, “You failed to sell your budget” at Town Meeting.

“It failed by a slim margin, but it still failed.”

Wentworth said it is unfortunate town employees have not received raises over the past three years, with some missing out on as much as 15%. He said he calculated a budget with a 6%-7% increase he believes could have been sold to voters. He hopes the budget in front of voters at the Special Town Meeting is more palatable than what was presented on March 10.

“One year, I can see it not passing,” he said. “The second year, you did it again. It failed. Third year, we should have known better.”

The budget committee will meet at 6 p.m., on Wednesday, April 8, with a public hearing on the budget scheduled for 6:30 p.m., at Town Hall.