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Broad Brook Fire Department seeks $100,000 in CIP and increases to support staffing and a new station
Summary
Broad Brook leaders told the Board of Finance call volume has risen to 907 annually and proposed a 13.7% increase in part-time staffing costs and a $100,000 CIP allocation to start planning a new station so the department can pursue grants for construction and decontamination improvements.
Nick Maksa, vice chairman of the Broad Brook Fire Department Commission, and Deputy Chief Denny LeMay presented the department's budget request to the Board of Finance and said call volume rose from 768 in 2020 to 907 in 2025. "We're now doing 907 calls per year," Maksa said, describing how increased EMS, motor-vehicle and mutual-aid responses have expanded the department's workload.
Maksa said 23% of the proposed budget goes to the capital improvement fund, 28% to staffing (about $363,520 in the proposal), and that part-time staffing costs for 2026 rose from $484,000 to $550,720 (a 13.7% increase) "driven by the part-time shifts Monday through Friday, the call volume and the duration of calls." He stressed the department maintains a combination volunteer-plus-part-time staffing model as a cost-control strategy and warned that moving to a full-time model would be substantially more expensive.
Citing an architectural study, the department said the existing station is outdated and does not meet ADA or gender-equity standards; they also raised firefighter exposure and decontamination concerns related to carcinogens and PFAS, saying the facility lacks appropriate contamination-control zones. To position itself for grants, the commission requested $100,000 be placed in the CIP to pay for planning and design work so grant applications to programs such as CIF and CDS can be competitive. "You can't just show up empty handed and ask for a grant. You have to have some skin in the game," Maksa said.
The department also requested increased funding for a volunteer incentive program (approximately $32,200) to help recruit and retain responders and to improve response reliability during daytime weekday hours. Broad Brook asked the Board of Finance to pass their budget to the voters in the referendum so taxpayers can decide on the funding request.
The Board of Finance did not vote on the request at the hearing; the presentation and public comment will be part of the board's budget deliberations.
