The Seymour Board of Finance voted Monday to increase funding to the police department by $280,716.
The department’s budget for next year is $3.71 million. That is an 8 percent increase.
The police department budget will be rolled into the town budget, which will be put before voters later this year.
Police Chief Michael Metzler said the department will replace two worn-out vehicles and three laser radar units to catch speeders.
Other than those purchases that are planned, it is pretty much a “bare bones” budget, Chief Michael Metzler said.
Metzler had wanted more money, to the tune of $3.83 million that would have been an 11.62 percent increase, but complied with a request from the Finance Board to trim back his spending plan.
“We were looking for a couple more laser units and a couple more vehicles, but under the circumstances we’ll take a little piece of the pie, no big pieces,” Metzler said.
The department has 20 vehicles. Two are on their last legs, he said. One of them is a pickup truck used to transport roadblocks and other equipment to emergency response scenes.
They’ll replace the vehicles at a cost of roughly $29,000 each.
The department stands at 41 officers. That number is not changing.
The finance members were glad to see the chief had trimmed the budget back as requested.
“I personally do not have any problems with this request,” Finance Board chairman Robert Koskelowski said.
After all the budgets are completed, possibly as soon as Wednesday, the next step will be a budget hearing in early April and a town meeting in late April, Koskelowski said.
