Council looks for extra money to fund EFD
Submitted by jcht2010 on
The fate of the Edna Fire Department is still unknown after the Edna City Council postponed a vote, choosing instead to meet one more time and try to figure out a long-term solution.
At the Aug. 6 council meeting, City Manager Don Doering said one option that was discussed for a motion could be that the city extend its contract with the Emergency Services District 3 until Dec. 31, 2015 with the intention of transferring control and operations of the emergency services to the ESD.
At the ESD3 meeting that was held at the August 5 meeting the commissioners adopted a 10 cent tax rate, but couldn’t make any other decisions based on the uncertainity surrounding the fire department funding.
D.J. Bell, ESD3 commissioner, said he was unaware of the motion being discussed or approved by the ESD3. Jake Srp, chairman of the ESD3, who was not at the meeting, later said the motion was one that was discussed at the meeting.
Council member Doug Kelley countered with a motion to fund the ESD 3 with $275,000 until the next fiscal year, allowing the city council a year to come up with another long-term solution.
The fire department revised their original budget, reducing the amount of funding needed from the ESD to $545,340, which would result in a balanced budget. The city would still need to provide $275,000, which is $50,000 more than it had budgeted.
Council was unaware of the revised budget until right before the meeting so no one had the opportunity to review the numbers.
Discussion continued as to where the city could find $50,000 to fund the fire department. Suggestions included cutting a new police cruiser and eliminating the 3 percent cost of living increase for the city workers.
Kelley said he also wanted the decision to keep the fire department to fall on the voters. He said he wanted to hold an election to allow the voters to say if they wanted to keep the paid fire department.
He said anything that will be done would not be not an overnight fix. He agreed the city needed to come up with a solution that will prevent this issue from coming up year after year.
Wayne Callis said when all the paperwork was drawn up creating the ESD3, it was intended to take it over one day. Bell said he never thought it would be in a year or two, but after a time when the ESD3 collected enough taxes to sustain itself.
Council member Maxine Price said she was concerned about extending the contract for any amount of time, since she was uncertain how the city can continue to fund the fire department.
Mayor Joe Hermes suggested postponing a decision until another workshop can be held so the council can sit down and look at the numbers and see if they can find the additional $50,000.
Council will meet at 5 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 17 for the workshop which will be before the Aug. 20 council meeting.
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