Board Budgets for Disaster

Where public safety is a top priority and emergency management preparedness is often expensive, budgeting for disaster proves challenging. Such was the case for the Board of Selectmen this year, as they wrestled with a decision to trim over $24,000 from a request for necessary shelter supplies.

"What do you want to tax for, and what do you want to plan for from a response standpoint?" asked Administrative Officer Karl Kilduff of the Board of Selectmen.

As it stands, the town owns and stores 231 cots at Darien High School. A number of cots are available regionally—Norwalk and Stratford each have 500 cots on hand, the Red Cross has an odd 100—but barring a strictly "Darien disaster," all affected communities would share the supplies.

"If we have a regional need, 230 cots for a population of 20,000 could be problematic," said Selectman David Bayne.

And thus a request for more cots came before the board.

Director of Emergency Management McEwan's initial request for 480 cots and an $8,5000 storage trailer totaled an approximate $39,000. Pinched for pennies and squeezed for municipal space, the Board of Selectmen has since cut that request by over $24,000 for the 2010-11 fiscal year, opting instead to purchase cots in smaller increments: 100 cots next year, and a second 100 in 2011-12. Each cot expenditure makes a $6,350 dip into the Board of Finance infrastructure reserve. And as for the storage trailer, that's pushed out to 2012-13.

The two-part policy decision didn't come without considered debate. Selectmen were in agreement over the first part of the decision, opting to purchase cots over time. But part two, the decision to cut the trailer from the coming year's budget, met mixed reviews.

The request for the trailer takes into consideration long-term plans to increase cot inventory.

"Mark has a concern that if we are to continue to buy more they're not going to be able to accommodate us to the extent they have at present. I couldn't tell you if another 100 cots is pushing the point of capacity," said Kilduff.

Selectman Callie Sullivan expressed interest in the trailer.

"What I like about the concept of having the cots in the trailer, is that it gets where it needs to go quickly. When bad stuff starts to happen, we don't want our emergency management director looking for cots," said Sullivan.

Moreover, she said, storage space is particularly tight at the high school.

Bayne agreed.

"It seems that if we buy the cots, we need the trailer. I have a hard time saying 'no' to that. Public safety is a priority of mine," said Bayne.

But Selectman Jerry Nielsen and Selectman Jayme Stevenson showed little interest in purchasing the trailer.

"I think public safety is a priority of all of ours," said Nielsen. "But I can just see that for long term storage, a trailor just sitting at public works rusting away."

Stevenson said that where public safety was indeed her priority as well, there might be other storage alternatives that have yet to be fully explored. Should a municipal building shuffle take shape in the future, she said, more storage space might become available.

"I'd prefer not to buy a trailer. If we're looking at potential storage efficiency and making facility changes over the next few years, I'd rather buy some cots and store them in a place that we can make available," said Stevenson.

The approved Capital Expenditures Plan for 2010-11 budgets for 100 cots but cans the trailer, leaving Kilduff with the challenging but feasible task of finding a place to keep them.

"If you're gonna buy 100 cots, we'll find a place to stuff 'em," he said.