Old Town firefighters are warning that a proposed four-person cut to the department would create a “risk” to city residents.
The city’s fire department is slated to shrink from 24 first responders to 20 if the proposed budget goes forward.
The cuts come after Old Town’s budget decreased by $2 million in property and business taxes after Nine Dragons Paper closed the Old Town mill in 2023. This change in the city’s income forced cuts in the proposed budget that will run from July 1, 2025, to June 30, 2026, including cuts of 13 full-time and four part-time employees across the city.
This change will decrease shift sizes and limit how the fire department is able to respond to calls. Namely, the change could make it so only one ambulance from Old Town will be able to respond to calls at a time instead of two depending on staffing, multiple firefighters have said at recent City Council meetings.
However, not cutting positions from the fire department would increase taxes a staggering amount, city officials said.
Matthew Webber, an Old Town firefighter, compared the proposed staff to 2019 when the department had 19 first responders instead of the current 24. The smaller staff created 50-hour work weeks and more unplanned overtime that occurred when first responders were needed in the firehouse when others were on vacation, out sick or training, he said during the May 19 Old Town City Council meeting.
Webber is one of multiple residents to speak out against the proposed cuts at recent council meetings.
The proposed cuts would create a smaller staff than in 1979 when the department responded to 572 calls, Webber said. The Old Town Fire Department responded to 2,268 calls in 2024.
Old Town Fire Chief Kyle Milan did not respond to requests for comment.
An estimated 6.21 percent increase to an $18.80 property tax rate is proposed along with the cuts. That rate, which is decided through municipal, county and school budgets, means a home worth $200,000 would receive a tax bill of $3,760 and a home worth $400,000 would pay $7,520.
Adding back two of the four firefighters would raise the tax increase to more than 9 percent, while keeping all four would create a more than 11 percent increase, Old Town City Manager Bill Mayo said.
In deciding how many positions to cut, the city applied a roughly 21 percent staffing cut across all city departments, Mayo said. The departments include city hall, the airport, the library and the police department, along with fire department cuts.
Despite a yearly increase in calls and smaller staff, Mayo said residents won’t notice a difference in services because neighboring departments like Orono will answer the calls Old Town won’t be able to respond to.
“There will be structural changes and organizational changes [in Old Town], but for the typical person that picks up the phone [to dial 911], I don’t think there will be a big difference,” Mayo said.
Old Town City Council will next talk about the budget during its June 16 meeting at 6 p.m. in the Old Town City Hall.
