Huntington City proposed budget

3-30-11

City Budget continues to make cuts

By Maria Romano

Driving the streets of Huntington may soon make you think about the cost of fixing a pothole.

In the 2011 budget proposal, $600,000 was to be set aside for street resurfacing.  At later budget meetings, a goal of $1 million was set for the paving and the cutting began.  Recent cuts of $190,000 from both the fire and police departments will now be used to assist the paving budget which is now at $940,000.

The Fire Department’s budget in the city proposal is $10.3 million.  That is about 25 percent of the city’s budget.

The fire department expressed a need for additional staffing, communications upgrades, new safety equipment, new vehicles and repairs to the fire stations.  Fire Chief Craig Moore said radios are the most important requirement for the department these days.

The department requested two grants for staffing and equipment.  The application for staffing would cost $1.015 million. It would fund 10 firefighter positions which the city would begin to pay for in the third year with an annual cost of $515,196.

A second grant request from the department in January was for $450, 000 for a response vehicle that serves as both a fire engine and a rescue vehicle.  It would respond to accidents on U.S. 60 and Interstate 64.  Neither request has been approved due to the determination for funding to repair the streets.

The initial budget proposal had already anticipated more budget cuts and layoffs, despite that this fiscal year’s budget of $41.8 million, effective July 1, is only an increase of less than one percent from last year.  The budget has not seen a drastic increase or decrease in the last three fiscal years.

“And yet with all that we have done and all the cuts that we have made, it has not been enough for us to weather this economic storm,” Wolfe said. “We must cut more and ask for even more sacrifice from our employees and our citizens.”

So far there is a total of $867,000 in unspecified cuts across 10 departments.

The $100,000 that funds the animal shelter was going to go toward the contingency fund which helps the city keep its BBB+ bond rating.  This has since been changed to a reduction of $25,000 from the shelter’s budget. 

Council members had said the shelter services are not adequate and are not worthy of full funding at this time, especially when the city is already scrambling to cut from other budgets.

“Unfortunately, as we prepared this year’s budget, the outlook is still bleak, as it is for most communities,” Wolfe said. “According to Research by the National League of

Cities, it will take municipalities around the nation at least until some time in 2012 to rebound.”

Let’s hope he’s right.

SIDEBAR:

Huntington Fire Department left with no room to grow

Sidebar

By Maria Romano

City council did not have good news for the Huntington Fire Department this 2011 fiscal year. 

Luckily, the $10.3 million budget is not a significant increase or decrease from the last three fiscal years.

Two grants for additional staffing and equipment were not approved and the department’s budget was cut by $90,000 to go toward the $1 million street resurfacing goal. 

Additional staffing, communications upgrades, new safety equipment, new vehicles and repairs to the fire stations were the topics of concern for the department.  Fire Chief Craig Moore said radios are the most important requirement the department needs.

Moore requested two grants for staffing and equipment.  The application for staffing would cost $1.015 million. It would fund 10 firefighter positions which the city would begin to pay for in the third year with an annual cost of $515,196.

A second grant request from the department in January was for $450, 000 for a response vehicle that serves as both a fire engine and a rescue vehicle.  It would respond to accidents on U.S. 60 and Interstate 64. 

Before the $90,000 cut, Moore said he had found $123,000 in the department's budget to purchase new radios, three air packs, new rescue belts and a new vehicle.  He said these were not immediate needs but it is what the department could afford.