ORANGE, MA (FRANKLIN COUNTY NOW) — Orange Police, the Northwestern DA’s Office, and an FBI agent are investigating fraud invoices totaling $800,000 sent to the Town of Orange last summer, leaving the town’s budget “down to the bone” according to Town Administrator Matthew Fortier.
Fortier began his position in August and shortly after discovered the fraud invoices and payments made, while able to stop some payments, $338,000 did go through. Now the Selectboard is working to tighten next year’s budget as the law enforcement agencies work and retrieve to locate the funds, something that may have drastic impacts on the public safety departments and libraries.
In order to accommodate the $338,000 now missing from the town’s budget, the Selectboard is looking to cut costs including potentially closing the Wheeler and Moore-Leland libraries next fiscal year (beginning July 1st)and cutting funding from public safety budgets.
For the police department, the cuts could mean losing two members of the department and ending third shift coverage. For the fire department, it could mean losing three firefighters and not having enough members on duty to safely fight fires according to OSHA standards.
The Orange Elementary and Ralph C. Mahar school committees will be meeting tonight to discuss their budgets. And the Orange Finance Committee is also set to meet today at 6:30 p.m.