THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, April 24, 1996 TAG: 9604240398
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MAC DANIEL, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: Medium: 55 lines
After a flurry of requests from firefighters for safer staffing and better equipment, the City Council on Tuesday decided not to rush approval of next year's operating budget.
During a budget work session earlier in the day, Mayor William E. Ward had said some council members had wanted to approve the budget Tuesday.
But the move was put aside after 16 speakers - representing the fire department, Tidewater Community College and others - asked for additional money.
Despite a slowdown in growth and an increase in school funding, the proposed 1996-97 operating budget calls for no new taxes or user fees. It does provide salary increases for both city and school employees.
The $428 million budget is 6.2 percent larger than this year's budget.
The majority of requests for additional funding came from local firefighters, all of whom asked the council to hire additional firefighters to staff fire trucks with four instead of three firefighters per truck.
Chesapeake's public safety departments are receiving the largest number of new positions in the proposed budget, which calls for the hiring of two new fire inspectors and seven new firefighters.
Most of the speakers, many wearing stickers bearing the number ``4,'' said the recent deaths of two Chesapeake firefighters were a direct result of under-staffing.
Chesapeake firefighters Frank Young and John Hudgins Jr. were killed March 18 when falling debris trapped them in a burning auto supply store.
Young and Hudgins were part of a three-person crew, the standard in Chesapeake. Most fire departments in Hampton Roads staff trucks with at least four firefighters. The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health recently passed guidelines calling for four-person crews.
``We only ask that you give us the best tools available to help us do our job,'' said Mark Simmons, president of the local firefighters union.
Firefighters and their supporters also requested an upgrade of the city's communication system, which is outdated compared to most fire departments in the region.
Simmons said Tuesday that the system is so bad that, during a false-alarm fire call to Chesapeake's City Hall on Sunday night, firefighters standing 200-feet from the building lost radio contact with firefighters inside.
There were also requests for additional fire stations in the city.
Council may hold a work session and a special meeting next Tuesday to again discuss the budget. Council members also discussed holding another budget work session next month, but no meeting was scheduled.
KEYWORDS: CHESAPEAKE BUDGET by CNB