By FR1 Staff
DANVILLE, Va. – The Danville City Council is considering closing one of the town’s seven fire stations in an effort to mitigate a projected budget deficit.
A five-year financial report delivered to the council shows a projected deficit of $22.3 million, despite the town’s current financial stability, forcing the council to look ahead at future cost-cutting measures they could take to offset it.
WSET 13 reported that one idea includes shutting down one of the seven Danville Fire Department stations, which would save the town $2.4 million.
“It would definitely extend response time to certain areas, again, depending on the locations of any closures or anything of that nature,” Assistant Fire Chief Steve Dishman said.
Another suggestion to save costs would be to abstain from filling vacant city positions for firefighters and police officers, which would save an additional $2.6 million over five years.
However, that would mean removing nine police officers from the street.
“We’re gonna do what we need to do for the public, we’re gonna respond,” Lt. Michael Wallace said. “Will it hurt efficiency here downtown? Maybe. It could, a little bit, but we would try to minimize that.