SUNDERLAND – Sunderland residents unanimously approved every action item including the fiscal year 2023 (FY23) $9.3 million budget during the Annual Town Meeting on April 29 at Sunderland Elementary School in Mike Wissemann’s last Town Meeting as town moderator.

The FY23 budget is a 4.3 percent increase from the previous year. Increases in funding allotted for health and sanitation, the Police Department and the Fire Department accounted for some of the biggest changes from the previous year. Out of 16 items in the budget, only the increased budget for the Police Department drew concerns from the public.

One resident asked why the budget is going up over $55,000 at a time when she thinks we should be looking at more social service support for people in Sunderland, and dealing with emergencies other than through force and police force, specifically.

“The 10 percent increase is a mixture between payroll increases through the contract, but the main increase is for a sixth full-time officer,” Chief of Police Erik Demetropoulos explained. “We haven’t been able to increase the Police Department’s full-time staff since 2001. My request this year as it has been for the past three years is to increase the full-time police status from five to six.”

Demetropoulos said in addition to the full-time officers, Sunderland also has eight part-time officers that work three times a week and will fill in for sick days, personal days or other reasons that make full-time officers unavailable.

“Massachusetts has been on the forefront of policing and really going forward and trying to show that police officers need to be certified,” Demetropoulos said. “Recently, they completed the POST system, the Peace Officer Standards and Training, and they’re requiring all police officers to become certified. Our part-time staff as well as about 60 part-time employees in Franklin County have had to attend a Bridge Academy. That Bridge Academy is 200 hours for each officer – 80 hours online and 120 hours of in-person. They’ve also reduced and stopped doing the part-time police academy, so there’s going to be no more part-time officers to pick from. Having a full-time certified officer added to the ranks would also assist with the increase in calls that we’ve had steadily for the past 20 years.”

Selectboard member Tom Fydenkevez added that part-time police wages have been reduced by about $6,200 and Police Department overtime has been reduced about $2,700.

The Selectboard asked and residents unanimously agreed to withdraw articles five, six and seven. The main focus was on article five, which included over $30,000 from free cash to fund accumulated sick and vacation leave buyback for retiring instructors at Sunderland Elementary School, a cost Fydenkevez said was likely to return on the Annual Town Meeting warrant for the next five to ten years based on retirement predictions from the school. He said the board will vote on taking the money from the town’s American Rescue Plan Act money at a later date.

Before being dismissed, a round of applause for Wissemann’s last meeting as the town moderator broke out. Peter Gagarin, once a local celebrity for being on the cover of a Wheaties box in 1985, took time to appreciate the logistics of the meeting.

“The acoustics this evening are wonderful,” Gagarin said. “Part of having a good town meeting is being able to understand each other and this is so much better.”
Wissemann replied after giving credit to Dogwood Audio.

“I’ll agree, we haven’t looked as dumb as usual up here because we can hear,” Wissemann joked. “I’m in favor of anything that helps us out.”