Police and Fire Sidebar

033011-SLT-budgetsidebar

BY SAM TURLEY

THE PARTHENON

Many city departments will face budget cuts in the 2012 fiscal year, and for Huntington's police and fire departments, cuts are nothing new.

At a Huntington City Council meeting on March 10, council members looked at the budgets of both departments and trimmed money to reallocate to paving funds. The council approved taking $100,000 from the police department and $90,000 from the fire department.

In the 2010 fiscal year, the Huntington Police Department received $11.6 million in funding. In the 2011 fiscal year, they received $11 million. For the upcoming 2012 fiscal year, the proposed allocation is 10.9 million.

The Huntington Fire Department has also had their budget reduced in the three most recent fiscal years. In the 2010 fiscal year, the budgeted amount for the fire department was $10.5 million. In the 2011 fiscal year, the adopted budget allocated $10.2 million. In the budget proposed for the 2012 fiscal year, the proposed amount is $10.3 million, a slight increase from the prior year. However, four vacant positions in the Huntington Fire Department will remain unfilled, a measure that is expected to save the department $65,000.