To the editor:

I have recently started attending budget committee meetings after hearing that our schools’ budget was in jeopardy of being cut — being a parent this concerned me.  

What I have learned is that this is a much bigger issue than just school budgets. The cuts are drastic to every department in town and the way our school superintendent, fire chief and police chief have been interrogated by some members of our budget committee is embarrassing.

Our fire chief is currently responding to emergency calls in a car with over 280,000 miles and that will not pass inspection. Upon asking for a new vehicle he was asked if a car unusable to the police department could be repurposed for him. If a car has so much mileage and engine wear that the police can’t respond to an emergency in it how can the fire chief be expected to?  

Our police chief requested  funding for one additional officer, explaining that during each shift only three officers are patrolling our town of 15,000 residents and that this past year calls to the police station were up 15.1%.

One of our budget committee members asked if the calls to the department were for cats in trees or if calls were actual emergencies.  If our budget committee member had been more in tune with the police and fire needs of our community, she may have known that car break-in’s and other crimes are a regular occurrence in our community, and school bus routes have been rerouted for student safety due to speeding and driver distraction.  The safety and well-being of our officers and our citizens should be a town priority not a cost saving strategy.

Our police chief, school superintendent and fire chief have all explained to the committee they have lost police officers, fire responders, and teachers to other communities because we pay some of the lowest salaries in the state. During the library budget presentation, one budget committee member chose to express his unhappiness with materials offered in the library teen room, going as far as to present printed materials of a video game that he saw at the library. I was under the impression that as a member of the budget committee he was entrusted with creating a budget for the town, not with choosing which materials should be censored at a public library.  

I believe in cost saving, however the cuts we have already experienced are crippling and at some point we need to find value in expenditures that educate our children and keep us safe in our homes.

Jennifer Joslyn

Tiverton Resident