RUMFORD — Finance Committee members Tuesday night began the first of three successive days of budget reviews, approving several department spending plans.

They met with department heads for parks and recreation, police, fire and public works, listened to requests, asked questions and approved amounts.

With one exception on the Fire Department budget, their recommendations mirrored those of selectmen, who completed their municipal budget work last month.

By 8-0 tallies, the committee OK’d $188,133 as the parks budget and $3,600 for ice skating.

Member Jeremy Vashaw, committee secretary, abstained from voting on most budget items until Kreckel reminded him that he’s a voting member and should be taking part. Vashaw said it’s difficult to vote and keep track of who else is voting or dissenting, but did later follow Kreckel’s advice.

By a 7-1 vote, the committee OK’d $12,280 for the Parks and Recreation’s cemeteries budget. David Kimball was the lone dissenter.

The committee approved $817,656 as the Police Department budget by a 7-1 tally.

Lone dissenter Ted Hotham focused his questions on overtime wages and the possibility that one officer could patrol the town on certain days or at certain times. He based that on his work in Cumberland in the 1970s.

“You have almost $90,000 in overtime and I’m concerned that we need to look at that rather than eliminate an officer,” Hotham said.

Carter said there are several factors that cause overtime spending, such as vacation and sick time, and when officers must stay after their shift, either to transport people to jail, sit with people at the hospital or deal with involved crime scenes.

He said he’d like to bring back a utility officer to reduce overtime costs by filling in when needed. Carter said that officer would be paid with money saved with overtime.

“Right now, I’m overbudget with overtime due to officer injuries and officers leaving,” Carter said.

When Hotham asked if Carter had ever considered having only one officer on duty, Carter said he hadn’t, because of safety issues.

He said a majority of calls involve domestic violence assault complaints, and drug- and alcohol-induced complaints that tend to create very unsafe working environments for one officer, and for victims and witnesses.

“Quite frequently when I have two officers working, there might only be one officer available,” Carter said. “If the other one has an arrest, there is no officer available to respond to the next call. That happens very often.”

He said they frequently deal with people in crisis that are having mental health issues that can tie up an officer and sometimes both officers.

“Short-staffed or having only one officer means we won’t be able to respond to calls,” Carter said.

When Hotham said there are other police in the area for mutual aid, like in Dixfield and Mexico, and state and county police, Carter replied, “Mutual aid is great if we have it.”

He said Dixfield and Mexico only staff one officer, so if they’re tied up with calls, they cannot help Rumford; likewise with state and county, who are not necessarily available 24 hours a day.

“To go to a one-person shift at times, leaves my officers vulnerable,” Carter said.

He suggested trying to regionalize for better control, savings and efficiencies.

The committee approved $26,994 for the Animal Control budget by an 8-0 vote.

The only substantial cut they made was to the Fire Department budget after Chief Bob Chase amended it. Chase said that when selectmen considered his budget, he had a 2 percent raise in for union labor. After selectmen OK’d $731,950, the labor contract was finalized without the raise.

Chase amended the wages portion, which reduced the department budget to $724,827 and the committee OK’d it 8-0. By the same vote, they also approved $7,737 for Emergency Management.

Public Works budgets OK’d by 9-0 tallies with Vashaw voting, were:

* $43,571 for sewer maintenance

* $324,890 for summer roads

* $50,000 for hot top

* $30,000 for state aid construction

* $20,000 to reconstruct sidewalks on the downtown island

* $10,000 for bridges

* $58,747 for town garage

The committee voted 7-2 for $615,332 for winter roads. Vashaw and Kreckel dissented.

The committee will convene public hearings and votes Wednesday, April 10, for the other departments, and Thursday, April 11, on initiated article requests. Both meetings start at 6 p.m. in Rumford Falls Auditorium.

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