Budget cuts are affecting public safety, according to the Amherst Fire Chief. His department was stretched so thin this weekend, at times there was no one to go out on calls.

After 40 emergency calls over the weekend, the Amherst Fire Department is making their grievances known.

"This weekend was the acute example, but the previous two weekends were also very busy so for some reason the start of the school year seems to have a lot of activity," says Amherst Fire Chief, Lindsay Stromgren.

And that activity is causing the town of Amherst to call upon other towns, and at times, the largest college town in Western Mass, is unprotected.

"Absolutely. If we're calling in mutual aid from other communities which we did nine times, that means we have nobody left in the station," Stromgren says.

Fire Chief Lindsay Stromgren, was called in at 1 and 2 o'clock in the morning on Friday and Saturday. He says it's partly because he has no overtime budget.

"We are an understaffed department and we're trying to get that word out," Stromgren says.

A fax sent to the media over the weekend explains how the department's $120,000 overtime budget was slashed, and, how they had to reduce the force to only seven on duty firemen.

"It should be fit in already because there are so many universities around," says Amherst resident Olasubomi Abio.

The university kids are partly to blame. The majority of the calls were alcohol related and most came from the three local campuses.

"Certainly the amount of activity that prompted the ambulance calls were noteworthy, it's still less than one percent of the population at UMass," says University spokesperson Ed Blaguszewski.

The college takes it seriously. It pays the town for a percentage of all on-campus calls.

However, one student says, as the year goes on, expect the area to quiet down.

"I know how crazy things can go. I do know that by 2nd semester, people do come to their senses and people act more sensibly," Abio says.

Stromgren is looking at two solutions: He'd like the town of Amherst to restore his budget, and he's applied for a state grant that would completely fund the lost overtime budget. We'll know it's status by October.