RUMFORD — The town manager and police chief are urging voters to support a $2 million budget to maintain the Police Department.

The question on the annual town meeting warrant will be decided at the polls June 10.

The proposed 2025-26 municipal budget is $12.47 million, a 10% increase over last year’s $11.3 million. Almost two-thirds of the increase is for the Police Department.

The Finance Committee voted 8-0 to support the proposed $2 million, according to the warrant warrant.

“This budget is about the town of Rumford making a decision to keep its Police Department,” Town Manager George O’Keefe said May 22. “Virtually all of that change in the police budget is in wages, because we negotiated a new three-year union contract that goes into effect July 1.”

O’Keefe said the total increase to be raised by taxes is $1.13 million. Of that, $750,762 is the increase for the police budget.

Without this increase, he said, “We would have ceased to have a police department that was viable, probably in the next 24 months.”

Police Chief Tony Milligan said May 23 that the department, which is authorized for 18 full-time positions, has had at least one vacancy for over five years.

“Despite offering hiring incentives of up to $10,000, like many agencies across the state, we’ve struggled to attract qualified candidates,” he said.

Milligan said the profession faces unprecedented challenges — greater scrutiny, rising demands, increased liability and dwindling interest among the next generation of workers. “Despite these realities, we believe that we must continue working hard to raise the bar in transparency and community policing, as our community deserves nothing less.”

The chief said, “There has never been a time more important than now to ensure that professional and ethical law enforcement services are provided at the levels of the profession’s best practices.”

“We have a choice,” O’Keefe said. “We can continue to have a police department. This is what it’s going to take to do it. Or we can go down a pathway where, ultimately, slowly but surely, we will lose what we have here. It may not happen tomorrow. It may not happen next month. It may not happen next year. But it will happen eventually.”

He said he believes the decision to go with the wage increase was obvious. “It was obvious from the outset that everybody had done everything they could to hold things together for as long as they could. And things have reached a breaking point.”

Milligan said neighboring towns such as Mexico have recently lost their departments altogether due to these same pressures. Dixfield and Bethel have faced the same challenges in years past and now other municipalities in Western Maine are at risk of potentially losing their local law enforcement, he said.

“Forced overtime, officer burnout, and stagnant wages made the work unsustainable,” he said.

“We cannot afford the same fate in Rumford,” Milligan said. “Our officers handle roughly 6,000 calls for service each year across nearly 70 square miles, and our community relies on a responsive and proactive police presence.”

“It’s a commitment not just to fill vacancies but to stabilize the agency and preserve local law enforcement in Rumford,” he said of this year’s proposed budget. “It reflects a necessary investment in competitive wages to stop the erosion of our workforce and attract new officers who are ready to serve.”

“We’re not aiming to be the highest-paid department in the state,” he said, “but we must no longer settle for being below average. These changes move us to a more competitive position and, more importantly, send a clear message that Rumford values its public safety professionals and is taking meaningful action to ensure a secure future.”

The first part of the annual meeting will begin at 7 p.m. Monday at Mountain Valley High School to act on the first seven articles on the warrant. Voting on the remaining articles will be from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday, June 10, at the American Legion Hall, 184 Congress St.