DUDLEY, Mass. — On Thursday, for the third time, Dudley will hold an override vote as the town seeks to balance its budget and keep critical services running smoothly.

Rather than face another override vote where a simple "no" could have continued sweeping budget cuts across town departments, this third try breaks things up into five questions for voters.

Question 1 asks for $556,111 to fund the Dudley Police Department and Dudley Fire Department, which would prevent further layoffs.

Police Chief Marek Karlowicz hopes voters consider the impact of another "no" vote.

“We’re working on the reduced budget already, the reduced budget already calls for reduced staff at the secretary position, it also eliminates the reserve officers,” Karlowicz said. “It eliminates a lot of the expenses we’ve anticipated for the year.”

Question 5, which asks voters for $901,683 to fund the Dudley-Charlton Regional School District, has public safety implications as well. If it passes, it will eliminate the need to make up for the shortfall with money from the public safety budget.

If the vote fails, the money still needs to be paid to the regional district either way, and it would come from the public safety budget.

“If Question 1 and Question 5 fail, we’re going to see deeper cuts where we lay off three people, two officers and a secretary,” Karlowicz said. “When I started 20 years ago, we had 16 full-time officers, we had just come back to 16 full time officers as of this year. If we lose those questions, we’re going to be going backwards for the police department.”

The Dudley Fire Department would stand to lose two career firefighter paramedics if the vote doesn’t pass.

Remaining questions, meanwhile, have to do with funding the highway department, town administration and the Pearl L. Crawford Memorial Library.

If all five questions pass, Dudley homeowners would see an average $519 annual tax increase.

“The town listened to the townspeople and put a ‘menu’ item together, that’s why we have those five questions,” Karlowicz said. “I think this is going to play a big impact not just for this year, but for next year. Any of the negative impacts we feel this year will get worse next year if any of the questions get voted down.”

Dudley voters can cast their ballots any time from 8 am to 8 pm on Thursday at the Dudley Municipal Complex.