At a time when labor litigation is ongoing between the village and the local firefighters’ union, the village announced its plans to eliminate additional paid staff. The proposed village budget for 2016-’17 includes the elimination of two paid firefighter positions.
The cut of fire personnel positions is explained in a stand-alone box in the village’s published budget materials, presented at the first executive summary session on Thursday, February 11.
“The year-over-year expense reductions are mainly due to attrition from the 2015-’16 budget. In addition, the 2016-’17 budget assumes the reduction of two positions.” For the fire department the village is proposing a preliminary number of $3.034 million, down from a forecasted number of $3.506 million - which itself is $21,000 less than what was adopted for the budget last year.