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Budget Cut Causes Firing of Georgia Chiefs
STATESBORO, Ga. - Statesboro officials have dismissed both the city's fire and police chiefs as part of an ongoing effort to trim a half a million dollars from its budget.
Statesboro Mayor Pro Tem Will Britt says city council members did not want to raise the millage rate and ordered the city manager and his staff to find other ways to save money.
That resulted in the firing of Dennis Merrifield, the fire chief, and Stan York, the head of police.
Britt says a public safety commander will be hired to supervise both departments.
Merrifield took the job in July, 2006. York has been an employee of the city of Statesboro for 29 years.
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Information from: WSAV-TV, http://www.wsav.com/
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Statesboro Mayor Pro Tem Will Britt says city council members did not want to raise the millage rate and ordered the city manager and his staff to find other ways to save money.
That resulted in the firing of Dennis Merrifield, the fire chief, and Stan York, the head of police.
Britt says a public safety commander will be hired to supervise both departments.
Merrifield took the job in July, 2006. York has been an employee of the city of Statesboro for 29 years.
___
Information from: WSAV-TV, http://www.wsav.com/
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Olivia Jones on
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For those of you that dont know Statesboro is a college town, it is home to Georgia Southern Univ. Now I'm not saying the city was right or wrong but, I would never send my boys to school in a city where some elected/appointed person heads public safety and has never actually worked public safety.
Being from just down the road aways ( thats a southernism for living within 100miles of a place) Ill have to keep an ear to the ground to see just how badly this is going to bite the city in the butt.
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Permalink Reply by Ron Ayotte on
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I'll bet they still have flowers for the parks and other useless BS budgeted....
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Permalink Reply by FETC on
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Public Safety Directors are cheaper on the books but both departments will clearly suffer.
Ron, you forget public works to pick up the trash and puke from the college parties...
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Ron, too funny at last night fire authority meeting when a dept. chief asked for new equipment he was told sorry but we dont have it in the budget.
Well that just didnt sit right so he asked if the county is broke why in the county commish meeting 2 hours before they approved new plants, trees, flowers and a brand new rec center. ( our current one is still in great shape)
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Permalink Reply by Tommy Lewis on
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Welcome to our new math. thank a political leader. I hope the best for this town.
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Seen it happen before where they then tagged the senior LEO for the dual PSD position and then essentially combined 3 salaries into one.
Ouch!
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Permalink Reply by Todd Seaney on
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"Britt says a public safety commander will be hired to supervise both departments"
wonder if it will be someone from a police or fire background. Think of he issues that could bring up. My guess is that it will be an accountant type that has never worked in fire or police work. That is just my thinking. After all isn't that the goal here to save money not to provide for citizen safety. Lets face it in the roll of goverment emergency services is the unwanted stepchild. And the first to get cut. Our own county can't afford the concrete for the floor in a new rescue squad building that was built last year, but are rushing to open a new nature center for fishing, hiking, and other outdoor entertainment activities. Hopefully someday officials will look past the next election at what should be a bigger priority.
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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on
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You get what you pay for. If you pay for professional fire and police chiefs, that's what you get.
If you pay for someone who knows just one side of the equation, then you shouldn't be surprised when one side or the other suffers.
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