Waterford - The Board of Selectmen on Tuesday approved without changes a $5.5 million Police Commission budget and $1.2 million emergency management budget, both for the 2015-16 fiscal year.

The preliminary budgets, which still require approval from other town bodies, place the police department at an overall increase of 2.23 percent more than the current budget year and emergency management at an increase of 5.9 percent more than the current budget.

The increases in each budget came mostly from personnel costs. Specifically, they came from increases in dispatch personnel costs for emergency management, and replacement overtime for the police budget.

Waterford Police Department Chief Murray Pendleton and Lt. Stephen Bellos described the increases as unavoidable, citing scheduled pay increases in both budgets. They said the police budget increased in part due to the loss of a $60,000 state grant that for the past decade has subsidized the income of an employee who has since changed positions at the department.

"This is what I consider to be a very quiet budget," Pendleton said of the police budget. He commented that the department is not embarking on any major new projects this year.

First Selectman Daniel Steward said he was asking all departments to aim for a zero percent increase in all areas other than personnel. He said personnel costs are difficult to control due to contracts.

t.townsend@theday.com

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