East Lyme —In the first of many upcoming meetings to sift through the town's budget, the Board of Selectmen Monday discussed eliminating one of East Lyme's two resident state troopers and reaffirmed their support for the practice of annually funding capital accounts to pay for major purchases.

During Monday's special meeting, the board reviewed the budget requests of four departments: police, fire marshal/emergency management, Flanders Fire Department and Niantic Fire Department.

The board will review other departments' requests during additional special meetings — including one at 5 p.m. today at Town Hall — then adjust the bottom lines and forward an overall budget recommendation to the Board of Finance.

Monday's meeting, though it included line-item reviews, also touched on a number of philosophical discussions regarding how the town operates.

Many in town have long believed that East Lyme will eventually form its own police department, outgrowing the Resident State Trooper program.

First Selectman Beth Hogan said Monday the town can save about $90,000 by going to one resident state trooper and said several area towns have done the same.

Sgt. Michael Collins and state trooper Claudia Tino-Tomassetti are currently the town's two resident state troopers. The town also has 20 full-time East Lyme police officers, which includes two sergeants, and five part-time officers.

Collins told the board the move makes sense considering the town has recently promoted officers to the position of sergeant — essentially developing supervisors within its ranks, he said.

If East Lyme transitions to its own police department, Collins said, the town will need to have that supervisory system in place.

The police department's request to the town is $1.5 million, about $90,000 more than last year's budget. Most of that figure is for salaries.

None of the current budget requests include capital items (or major expenditures), which are reviewed separately.

But the topic of planning for capital items did come up during a review of the Niantic Fire Department's budget, when Niantic Fire Chief Ron Pringle told the selectmen that one of the department's trucks is currently out of service and could not yet be replaced.

Money is typically socked away in a variety of capital nonrecurring expense accounts each year. That way, the town can pay cash for large items rather than bond for them.

Money for the department's pumper was not funded last year, and Pringle said the department's replacement schedule for vehicles has been pushed back. He expressed his frustration to the board, with the selectmen responding that they support funding for capital accounts.

The selectmen said they have consistently supported the practice and said the town's Board of Finance has instead taken money from the capital accounts and used it elsewhere in the budget. Hogan said Monday that she would relay the selectmen's wishes to the finance board.

The selectmen said that they would support $118,000 to help Niantic purchase the truck. That request would be included in the capital account.

Other major items Monday include a request for three full-time plus three part-time dispatchers in the town's emergency management department. Fire Marshal Dick Morris said the department should have two dispatchers on at all times because it gets overwhelmed by the number of calls.

The extra dispatchers would cost an additional $135,832, a figure that does not include benefits, Hogan said.

k.crompton@theday.com