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Acton Fire Department seeks more staffing, proposes fire prevention officer and pilot ALS changes
Summary
Acton Fire Chief Anita Arnham presented the department's FY26 budget request and operational priorities, telling the Select Board and Finance Committee that the department is running with vacancies, rising call volume and increasing apparatus maintenance costs.
Acton Fire Chief Anita Arnham presented the department's FY26 budget request and operational priorities, telling the Select Board and Finance Committee that the department is running with vacancies, rising call volume and increasing apparatus maintenance costs and proposing targeted staffing and operational changes to improve service and reduce overtime.
Lede/nut graf
The chief said Acton currently budgets for 46 full-time positions but is operating with about 39 staffed firefighters because of seven vacancies. The department proposed two additional firefighter positions in FY26 (the manager reduced an earlier eight-person ask to two in the package presented) and requested a full-time fire prevention officer to take on code enforcement, plan review, and permit-driven inspections. Staff proposed funding the fire prevention officer from the building inspectors' revolving fund while the new fire prevention revolving fund builds fee revenue.
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