Barre Finance Committee reviews FY22 budgets for fire, ambulance, dispatch, and police

BARRE -- March 18, 2021, Barre Finance Committee hears FY22 budgets for fire, ambulance, dispatch, and police departments. Fire Chief Rob Ragowski presented an ambulance budget of $554,000, slightly below the current year's $557,402, while reporting the service billed $734,000 in fiscal year 2021 but collected only $260,000, with 72 percent of patients covered by Medicare, Medicaid, or MassHealth. The dispatch center's director, Mike Moriarty, showed a $53,936 overall budget increase driven by union contract wages and reported Barre's share of the five-town assessment at just under 20 percent of a $724,634 total; he presented the center's first-ever capital plan, which includes a five-year radio replacement estimated at roughly $1.98 million with no cost-sharing mechanism yet in place. Police Chief Brian Carbone submitted a budget roughly two percent below last year's and requested a $55,000 SUV replacement. Town Administrator Jessica Lincourt told the committee Barre may receive approximately $1.1 million from the new federal stimulus package and flagged a $35,000 estimate for Old Town Hall roof repairs she called potentially conservative.