Our positions as Public Safety Department heads are not political in nature. We are committed to serving our community and its residents no matter the demographic, political affiliation, or orientation. Safeguarding lives, businesses and properties demands our full attention, and this is where we would like to stay focused rather than making appeals to fund our services. 

The Town has historically, and will no doubt continue to enjoy a low tax rate even if voters approve the five ballot questions in the August 17, 2023, Proposition 2 ½ Override Election. Yet, the level of services provided by our departments will change significantly should the menu of override questions fail.

This is not a scare tactic. Your public safety departments are not immune to inflation and the rising costs of nearly everything. 

Lately, some of the comments made in our community and across social media platforms have gone from informational to hateful. We have seen people advocating for state receivership of the Dudley-Charlton Regional School District, for defunding the police department, and for the elimination of the professional firefighters and paramedics by regressing to an outdated, decades-gone volunteer fire department. 

We’ve seen posts calling to reduce our tax rate, which is the lowest in the county and among the lowest in the state, through an “Underride.” As dangerous to our community are the posts and comments from those who would cripple life-saving services to further their political battle against the Commonwealth and our local government. 

We write this letter as an appeal to the rational, sober, and thoughtful members of our community who understand what is at stake on August 17th.

As the Chiefs of your public safety departments, we ask for the community’s collective help to first, take a deep breath and a break from the rhetoric. Then logically consider our Fiscal Year ‘24 budget issues. The town’s revenue, which is the amount we collect from residents in taxes, is insufficient to meet our legal obligation to pay the school district assessment and to properly fund town services. At the May 22, 2023, town meeting, voters approved a FY24 budget that comprised an overall town wide reduction of more than ten percent from last year’s amounts. In the June 12, 2023, Proposition 2 ½ Override Election, Dudley voters rejected the amounts required to level-service fund police and fire budgets, which solidified the 10% budget reduction to our services. On the following day, the school committee re-voted its assessment to Dudley, which resulted in a $901,683 deficit in the town budget. To re-balance the budget, further cuts must be made to municipal services, including fire, police, highway, library, Veterans’ Services, Council on Aging, Treasurer/Collector, Town Clerk, and Town Accountant. 

The school committee is elected to advocate for a school budget that appropriately funds education. We are appointed in part to do the same for public safety. 

The ten percent funding cuts to our departments, the failed June 12, 2023, override intended to restore those cuts and the additional reductions needed to fund the school district’s demand for $901,683 will have negative operational impacts in FY24 and beyond. The reduced funding to our departments is a clear and present danger to our community in terms of public safety and to the men and women of the police and fire departments in terms of their ability to work safely. 

The politicizing of our funding to serve an ideology undermines our work. Unfunded public safety budgets cause response times to suffer, investigations and proactive policing to diminish, and keeping drugs out of our schools and our kids protected becomes a greater challenge. The approach of the winter months, with insufficient staffing for clearing roads will further hinder our work. 

Passing the five override questions on the August 17, 2023, ballot will return all municipal departments to acceptable service levels, while the adjusted tax rate with the reduction from retired debt will be a net increase of only $1.43 per thousand in property valuation. Dudley would continue to have the lowest tax rate in the area and all services - schools, highway, town hall, police and fire would be adequately funded.

If you choose to vote in favor of Question 5 on the ballot and fund the school district assessment, it will restore departmental budgets back to the ten percent reduction level approved at town meeting on May 22, as the $901,683 for the school assessment would come from taxes rather than from more cuts to critical services. Question 5 would add 62 cents to the tax rate.

If, however, you choose to also approve Question 1 on the August 17, 2023 ballot, it would restore public safety to adequate levels for an additional 38 cent increase to the tax rate. To fund the highway department by approving Question 2, it would add 37 cents; Town Hall and Veteran’s Services on Question 3, would add 9 cents, and the library funding on Question 4, 21 cents. 

Voters will be asked to make important choices on August 17, 2023. We hope that you will support all the ballot questions and will go to the polls knowing your single vote will help decide the level of services that you will receive. 

As the chiefs of your public safety, we have no political points to make. Our sole purpose and focused interest are in serving the community with the resources required to keep you safe and there when you need us. A yes vote on Question 1, Question 2, and Question 5 restores public safety. A yes vote on Questions 3 and Question 4 restores public services. A yes on all five questions will still maintain the lowest tax rate in the area and will prevent our community from having to deal with a greater financial crisis in FY25. 

Keep us all on the job for you, for you families and for your neighbors. Reject the politics and ideologies and please do the right thing for all of us.

Marek Karlowicz, Police Chief

Dean Kochanowski, Fire Chief