City Cuts Facing Challenges

Our struggling economy is starting to affect some of our most important city departments. The article titled “City manager to rethink cuts of fire truck staffing” can be found at http://www.statesman.com/search/content/news/stories/local/03/06/0306fire.html and describes the backlash the city is facing.
City manager Marc Ott was in favor of cutting the manpower on fire engines from four to three but due to city council opposition as well as firefighter pressure he has decided to rethink. Over 100 firefighters held a news conference outside of city hall to discuss the potential problems that this could cause. Union representatives argued that these cuts would jeopardize their reaction time to emergencies and would create a safety issue for the firefighters. Ott said that the change is staffing would save approximately $200,000.00 dollars and after hearing all sides to this proposed cut, there was no doubt that the fire department would participate in budget cuts. Ott has now asked to hear community input whether or not the fire department should make such cuts. The article is important because citizens should be aware of the possible issues that could arise from city budget cuts. It is apparent that these tough economic times are putting our most valued city services in crisis.