Back to Fort Fairfield Journal WFFJ-TV Contact Us
Fort Fairfield Taking Drastic Steps to Cut Town Expenses
Librarian and Some Library Hours the First to Go
By: David Deschesne
Fort Fairfield Journal, November 30, 2022
The town of Fort Fairfield is grappling with around $1 million in outstanding debt and a budget that has seen payroll increase over half a million dollars in just two years - along with a property tax increase of 30% over last year's. This is not a good position for a bedroom community of around 3,600 people - mostly retirees, and an increasing population of homeless people being imported from southern Maine - to be in.
At the Fort Fairfield town council's November meeting, Gary Sirois spoke during the public comment period to provide an overview of the recently released town audit. “Having taken the time to review the audit report there were some things that really didn't surprise me because we were looking at them for the past year and a half.”
Sirois highlighted some key takeaways from the audit report:
- Net position: down $836,000
- Change in the net position in two years: $1,817,000.
- Government funds balance: down $575,000
- Excess of expenses overrun in the last year: $790,000
- Covered employee payroll in Fiscal Year 2019 -20: $546,000; FY 20-21: $811,000; FY 21-22, $1,101,000.
“That's reflected in the other numbers but that's just the employee payroll,” said Sirois. “That's an increase of $555,000 in two years. I wasn't surprised by the numbers because I've been standing here for quite some time, talking to the council about concerns I have about over spending, concerns I had about increase in taxes, and most citizens should have those concerns. This report is from the auditors and it just verifies what some of us have been saying all along. I'm not sure - I hate to say this to you - I'm not sure where the council's been the last two or three years, knowing some of this stuff was going on and continuing to approve budgets way beyond reasonable. The numbers speak for themselves. Hopefully, the council and manager will take the corrective action to bring this back in line.”
Tax revenue receipts increased in the town office from $179,000 collected in October of last year to $452,000 collected in October this year. However, the town is still struggling under the weight of excess debt.
“We're fairly new into this year. We're looking at around $400,000 in savings in expenses for this year,” said Fort Fairfield town manager, Dan Foster. “We've been working with Mike in the Fire Department and hopefully will be a step in that direction, but there's also going to be other places, we'll be looking for them as well.”
One of those places was the town's public library. The public library today is more than just a book storage and loaning warehouse. People look to the library for assistance with genealogy research, composing simple legal forms, historical archives and a place for tutoring. At the November council meeting, Foster recommended the librarian position be eliminated, library hours be reduced to three days a week and the library be staffed by part time employees and volunteers, when needed - which would save the town around $60,000 off the current year's budget and around $85,000 off of next year's budget.
“My proposal has nothing to do with the librarian’s performance, it’s purely a budget decision” said Foster. “I've got fifteen years of experience as a town manager and I can tell you in my heart of hearts I know what it is I need to do in order to get us back on a financial footing and I cannot do that without creating some pain and discomfort, I just can't and that's just the bottom line. This is part of a process you're going to be hearing again and again and you're going to be hearing passionate folks, how they feel about whatever it is that we're looking at cutting. It's just a fact of life and it's not an easy thing, but it's something I'm willing to do and it's something I can do if I'm allowed to.”
Fort Fairfield Librarian, Jennifer Ganzel advised the council that if the librarian position is eliminated, the town's library will lose its state and federal designations as a public library.
“The integrity of the library will be fine,” said Foster. “It will be able to meet the need of most of our patrons and I am very, very confident that the library will be managed well.”
Town councilor, Mitch Butler spoke against Foster's proposal. “I can't grasp the thing to fire the librarian and keep two part timers with reduced hours and obviously we'd have to reduce the hours of the director, and one part-timer so I think the person that's been there the longest should be staying and the person that's not been there the longest should be the first one out. You're getting rid of a full time position and you've got two part timers. So, if you take the full time position, change that to a part time position and keep one of the other part timers you'll have two people.”
“In my judgment, that is not what I think we should be doing,” said Foster. “I hear you, Mitch. You guys hired me to do a job and I'm doing it.”
The Fort Fairfield Library Board of Trustees had offered a counter-proposal to the town manager's that would keep the librarian, with reduced hours, and had the board adding $6,350 from its own account to contribute toward the expenses but the town council voted to adopt Foster's proposal with a 3-2 vote; Mitch Butler and Melissa Libby voting against it and Robert Kilcollins, Kevin Pelletier and Jim Ouellette voting for it. The council’s decision went into effect on November 28.
There was some confusion about the librarian position, however. On November 4 a complaint was made against the librarian which the town manager assigned the police chief to investigate. On Monday, November 14 the town council met in executive session to discuss the complaint. As a result of Chief Cummings’ investigation, Foster recommended termination. The council then voted to keep the Librarian on. Two days later, however, they voted to eliminate the position. The two votes have been errantly compared to each other as paradoxical, but the former (the complaint) seems to have had nothing to do with the latter (the budget).
A few days after the council's vote to eliminate the librarian position, the Library Board of Trustees chairman, Shawn Newell resigned from his position in protest.
Meanwhile at the Fire/Rescue department, some vehicles are being readied for sale. We've got a ladder truck, two SUVs and an ambulance we're looking at selling,” said Fort Fairfield Fire/Rescue chief, Mike Jalbert. “I'd like to do a direct sale negotiation. Because these are emergency vehicles, I think we can get more money for them by marketing them as emergency vehicles and selling them with the equipment in it. We have had a lot of interest from people on all of those vehicles.
Chief Jalbert had done some research on the market value of just the ladder truck and found it had a fair market value of around $600,000. “That's more than what we paid for it, it's a good starting point.”
Currently, there are two parties interested in buying the ladder truck. The town of Limestone will be purchasing one of Fort Fairfield Police Department’s cruisers and Presque Isle and Van Buren have expressed an interest in acquiring one of Fort Fairfield’s ambulances.
Mr. Foster also enumerated some various town properties that the council could consider selling to help with the town's cash position. “We've got three land leases on Cheney Grove. We've got two that are old B&A leases, one's under a storage building that Gary Sirois owns. One's a potato house that used to be the Barnes potato house that now Gene Helstrom has and then Phil Kilcollins is leasing land in front of one of his potato houses. I'd like the council to agree to let me approach the three landowners to see if they'd be willing to purchase the property under their buildings for the assessed value and then use those funds to see what we can do to help clean up in that area. The town council approved the request unanimously.
Foster said after 18 months when the debt is paid down and the mil rate is down any of the budget cuts that have been instituted can certainly be revisited at that time.
.