Now that Danville Firefighters have a new contract, the President of Firefighters Local 429 says talks will begin immediately on the next one. Jerry Sparks commented after the Danville City Council ratified the new pact at Tuesday night’s meeting.
The new fire contract dates back to 2014 and expires in just one year.
The City Council also approved its new fiscal year budget, even though it has not been determined yet how over $700-thousand dollars will be cut from the Fire Division. Mayor Scott Eisenhauer was asked whether there is still a possibility of cuts in personnel on the fire department
And both sides say the recent talks involving two committees have been very positive in nature. Earlier the Mayor had proposed cutting 16 firefighters. The new budget approved Tuesday night makes cuts across the board in city operations.
An arbitrator had earlier ruled in favor of the Firefighters local in their stance that minimum manning should not drop below 13 firefighters per shift. And Sparks says that issue was big
And now as talks continue on how more than $700-thousand dollars will be slashed from Fire Division’s operations, Sparks says there have already been some ideas floated…
Sparks is also hopeful that both sides will be able to come to an agreement that will keep Fire Station #3 on North Griffin Street open.
The City Council had earlier decided to cut the number of stations from four down to three..
Despite the optimism that is currently evident on both sides in the firefighter talks, both agree that something must be done to address the rising costs in the pension fund. It is a problem that is not only affecting Danville, but is also impacting other Illinois cities in both their fire and police departments.
