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Richmond Firefighters Association launches blog to track fire company closures
10/20/2009 6:37 AM by John M
Following September’s rumblings that fire stations are being understaffed, Richmond Firefighters Association Local 995 has launched a new blog that details the daily closures of fire companies (including Quint 1 (Church Hill) CLOSED for 24 hrs. on October 7 and October 10).
Since the beginning of the 2009 – 2010 fiscal year, the Richmond Fire Department budget has experienced cuts that directly impact the amount of fire protection available on a daily basis to the City of Richmond. This blog is to serve as a place where information can be found regarding where daily cuts are occurring.
This situation was addressed at the last 7th District meeting on September 27th by Fire Chief Creecy.
Not good. I seem to recall that the Bush administration made significant cuts of federal funds for local fire & police departments way back in ’02 or ’03….. Does anyone know if those funds were ever restored and / or if the problems we’re seeing now in the Richmond Dept. trace back to those reductions?
It seems to me that was about the time that there were serious reductions made in Byrne, JAG, and COPS grant funding from the levels funded during the Clinton administration. That may be what you are talking about.
I know that many local law enforcement agencies relied on that federal grant funding to beef up their numbers during the 1990s and into the first part of this decade.
Matt/Bullwinkle,
An article I read recently about the cuts specific to Richmond:
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2003/0309.wallace-wells.html
from the article….
“It wasn’t always like this. Ten years ago, [1993] Wallis and a 25-officer narcotics squad cleaned out Whitcomb Court. They set up surveillance teams in the elementary school that abuts the project and staged regular raids, cops piling out of a suddenly arrived line of six, eight, 10 cars to snatch all the dealers and guns they could. Within three months, the dealer pyramid in Whitcomb Court had been broken, its principals in jail and the project quiet.
Afterwards when Wallis and his squad would ride through Whitcomb Court, the older residents would sometimes cheer”.
We need that kind of force again. History is unfortunately repeating itself.
Hello residents!
You all need to look locally – this has very little to do with any Federal funding we may be receiving. Obviously monies from many different sources help, but the staffing budget remains fairly constant (and actually should be getting smaller secondary to the many retirements of senior level FF’s).
At any rate, you folks need to need to monitor the situation very closely as these “temporary” closures may become permanent. Ask yourselves why the fire administration staffing has been largely unaffected by budget shortfalls, but the operations level folks are feeling the pinch?
You all should also be aware that your fleet of front line apparatus is also affecting daily operations – they have been in need of replacement for years now and there is still no plan for replacement (It will take from 6 months to a year from time of order to have them built). Fire administration has has direct knowledge of this for years and to this day “talks” are still ongoing.
From looking at the video of the Chief’s meeting you were on the right street with your questions, just not the right block. As a result the answers weren’t really lies, but they really weren’t the truth either.
I encourage you to stop by any fire station and speak with the firefighters on duty if you have any concerns. They work for you, and want to make sure that you are getting the protection you need.