06/24/2026
Unlike the police department, we are fully staffed and looking at cutting 5-8 positions.
Not only does this effect the lives and families of 5-8 people, it cripples our day to day capabilities as a department.
We may be be looking at going from 5 on each shift to 3, meaning we can now only handle 1 initial ambulance call without the need to call another ambulance from a mutual aid department to respond and help when a second emergency arises - a real concern for us as we handle roughly 2,000 calls annually.
Our performance on the fireground will also suffer. With 5 on a crew, we were already operating well below NFPA standards to enter a burning home, and now we’re faced with the possibility of not being able to fight from the inside at all. This is the difference between collecting your belongings and family heirlooms after a fire, or looking at a smoldering foundation.
We also service patients with serious medical issues at Penobscot Valley Hospital who need to be transferred to a higher level of care facility via ambulance. This service (that generated the town of Lincoln more than $500,000 in revenue last year) is now in danger; as we cannot strip the citizens of their fire and EMS coverage to take a transfer out of town.
Our mutual aid companies have also said that they will either not respond here to help, or they will begin charging the town for their services. Lincoln is a hub community, meaning we typically have a higher call volume that demands more people and more resources more often than our mutual aid partners do. The deal has always been, that they will come to help us if we are able to go help them when they call. That has become a question for the first time as we may not have the ability to respond out of town anymore.
With 80% of the Fire Department budget accounting for wages, there simply is not another place we can make this sizable of a cut. With that being said, this proposed cut will only “save” the average taxpayer roughly $100 a year on their tax bills. $8 a month. $2 a week.
A truly devastating blow for the citizens of our coverage area and the safety of the men and women who respond to these calls every single day.
LINCOLN -- After a fiery town council meeting, Lincoln approved a town budget that is slated to drastically cut spending for public safety and other departments. Public safety officials are
