The City of Danville and local firefighters continue to await an arbitrator’s decision on whether the City can reduce minimum manning at local fire stations. Mayor Scott Eisenhauer has proposed reducing minimum manning to ten firefighters per shift instead of thirteen. The Mayor says allowing the reduction would eliminate the need to spend so much money for overtime in the fire division. But Danville Firefighters Local 429 has maintained cutting the number of personnel on duty would be dangerous.
The Firefighters Local is also against the Mayor’s plan – which has already been approved by the City Council – to close fire station number 3 on North Griffin Street. The Mayor expects the fire suppression crew that is currently based at station 3 to be out of that building before summer. Administrative offices for the Fire Division of the Department of Public Safety will still be located at the building once the firefighting crew leaves.
The plan the City Council approved earlier calls for cutting the number of fire personnel through attrition. Mayor Eisenhauer says three individuals on the fire department are eligible to retire based on age and years of service. It is unknown, however, whether any of them plan to retire this year. Danville’s Police force is currently down one, and the Mayor told the committee three more police positions may open over the next fiscal year. But he adds if those officers decide to retire there is money in the proposed new budget to replace them.
