The Town of Amherst is facing a staggering budget crisis, and the Select Board has proposed many ideas and strategies in the hope of alleviating the deficit. On February 25th, the Select Board spoke of reorganizing the fire department. The Select Board has good intentions in mind, but they are trying to squeeze money from departments that have already been wrung dry.

In any municipality, residents and businesses pay their taxes so that the city or town can provide the essential services needed to sustain a safe and habitable place to live. Those essential services are Public Safety, Public Works, and Schools.

Amherst's Public Safety is comprised of the fire department and the police department. The firefighters also staff the town's ambulances. These services offer the peace of mind that when you have an emergency, they will be available to respond at a moments notice. At current staffing the departments struggle to keep their vehicles and personnel available to respond. With the potential for further budget cuts on the horizon, that peace of mind dwindles to a hope that when you have an emergency, the fire department and police department will be available. As it stands now, both departments desperately need more staffing to manage the call volume they respond to annually. The firefighter’s protective clothing which keeps them safe in a fire is over five years old and is showing its age. Four of the five ambulances have greater than 100,000 miles, and the firefighters who work on the vehicles struggle to keep them up and running. The proposed changes to the fire department will further undermine the department's ability to effectively and safely do their jobs. This puts not only public safety at risk, but the safety of the firefighters and police officers on a daily basis.

The Department of Public Works maintains our infrastructure. They maintain our streets and clear them in adverse weather. They provide us with clean drinking water, maintain our town's landscape and do any other conceivable job associated with the aforementioned. Members of the DPW take pride in their jobs, and do the very best they can with what money the town has given them to work. Faced with budgetary restraints, they are unable to keep up with the demand of everyday duties, let alone be able to make the roads passable in a snowstorm, or repair a waterline break. Amherst’s infrastructure is in need of constant upkeep and repair; further budget cuts will only result in worsened street condition and no improvement in the near future.

The School system needs adequate funding to pay for teachers, supervisors and materials, as well as maintenance, custodial services, and transportation. As it stands, teachers will lose jobs, and students will suffer by being overcrowded in classrooms that offer fewer and fewer subjects for the students to study. If Amherst aspires to have the education system it has long boasted of, then the school and all of its departments need to be adequately funded to function the way they are designed; with the students’ best interests in mind.

These are the town’s essential services and as such need to be adequately funded. Funding of Public Safety, Public Works, and Education should not be cut. As it stands today, none of these services can afford any further budget cuts. Although the Select Board and Town Manager may have the best interests of Amherst in mind, the repercussions of their proposals are dire. Public Safety is already teetering on the edge of collapse, and the residents of Amherst need to be aware that any further cuts will have a profound effect on their safety.