Dartmouth Fire District 1 officials will look to get a $603,200 budget approved for the next year, $74,800 more than the $528,400 requested last year.

Part of the increase is the result of adding a full-time position to the district.

Prudential Committee Chairman Marcel Dumont said a number of other factors went into the “small increase” as well.

“There’s a couple of things," said Dumont. "The Chief is now a contracted position rather than an elected position,” he said, pointing to a change that he said happened a few years back. “We’ve had to move things around. The amount of fires and incidents has gone up. We have to account for that.”

Dumont said the district is seeking as to have a full-time employee at the station on Bridge Street at all times. Currently, there is at least one or two employees on at the station during the day, but it's not a full-time position.

"It's not the same person every day," he said. "It depends on if somebody’s got a day off from work or whatever. That’s where the problem arises."

He also said employees haven’t had a pay raise in years, and the district is looking to allow for a dollar raise per position. Under the new pay structure, recruits would make $18 per hour, Step 1 firefighters would make $23 per hour, and Step 2 would make $21 per hour. Lieutenants would be paid $25 per hour, house captains would make $22 per hour, and line captains would be paid $27 per hour. Dispatchers would be compensated $19 per hour, and all other district personnel for other duties would make $19 per hour.

An appropriation of $77,000 has also been requested for Chief John Judson’s salary for the upcoming year.

Dumont said he’d like to see that number be more like $100,000.

The present Chief gets $70,000 per year, which is among the lowest in the state,” said Dumont. “He may not get that. I feel (the appropriation) should be $100,000 so we can negotiate with people. If the present chief refuses the contract, we can have somebody come in that’s qualified. A normal chief gets anywhere from $125,000 to $150,000. I feel that if we had $100,000 in there, it’s negotiable. We don’t have to give him $100,000, but it’s negotiable.”

Fire District 1 covers easterly portion of town south of Allen Street and east of Tucker Road. The boundary cuts through the woods down to Russells Mills Road and Potomska Road up to New Bedford line.

A number of other housekeeping items round out the meeting warrant, which will be voted on at the District’s Engine House at 10 Bridge Street on Wednesday, May 13 at 6:30 p.m.