Police Chief James Babu and Fire Chief Rick Sicard met with the Finance Committee Tuesday, Nov. 28. Both expressed hope for increases in their departmental budgets for fiscal 2025. The greatest need for the police, Babu said, is to add two patrol officers to fill all shifts. For the Fire Department, Sicard saw costs increasing in several areas, with the largest being in on-call wages as the number of fire calls rises.
Officers needed to fill shifts
Chief Babu supplemented his budget request with a staffing report that emphasized the need for the two new officers. Harvard currently has nine full-time officers—fewer than any nearby town except Berlin. “We are the sole department in the region,” Babu wrote, “that does not have the capacity to consistently allocate two officers per shift.” In response to questions from FinCom member Noyan Kinayman, Babu said about a dozen shifts per week have only one officer on duty.
Having two patrol officers per shift, Babu said, was important for both community safety and the safety of the officers themselves. He noted that other essential services—the ambulance crews, firefighters, and DPW workers—always have at least two people responding to after-hours emergencies. The limited number of officers also leads to more reliance on overtime pay to cover extra shifts, vacations, and illnesses.
The police budget request to cover the two new officers in fiscal 2025 would total $1,499,163—an increase of $195,176 over fiscal 2024, or just under 15%. The largest part of that increase comes in the personnel line from the new hires, but there is also a savings of about $30,000 in overtime pay.
Another major item in the fiscal 2025 police budget is the purchase of a new hybrid cruiser. (Because cruisers are replaced on a regular schedule, new ones are included in the department budget, rather than being submitted to the Capital Planning and Investment Committee.) The budget request includes $70,000 for the cruiser.
Like other departments, the police also provided a level-funded budget for the same amount as the current year. That budget, Babu said, would eliminate both the new hires and the new cruiser. He noted the current cruiser is on its second engine rebuild; keeping it is “not advisable,” he said.
Weekly meetings support skills, morale for volunteer firefighters
Chief Sicard said the number of fire calls is trending upward, in Harvard and throughout the state. “[T]here is no one reason we can point to,” he wrote in response to FinCom questions. “…It is just more calls across the board for all types of emergencies.”
Mainly as a result of the expected increase in on-call wages, the Fire Department’s fiscal 2025 budget shows a rise of about 6% over fiscal 2024—from $514,339 to $545,902.
If required to keep the budget at its fiscal 2024 level, Sicard said, the department would have to cut back on professional development and its weeknight training meetings, as well as eliminating repairs and replacements for its radios.
In response to FinCom queries, Sicard wrote that the weekly evening meetings are vital in maintaining both skills and morale among the firefighters. “The best way we work on keeping members interested and engaged,” he wrote, “is through these meetings and trainings every week.”
