brownouts

New Bedford Fire Union President Billy Cabral says the City's SAFER grant for FY16 has already expired. The City's Chief Financial Officer, Ari Sky, confirms the grant expired in mid-March. Cabral says the City now has to pick up the tab for 63 firefighters that were funded by the federal grant for the next four months...

Protests over the City's rolling fire station brownouts are expected to begin Thursday afternoon outside of City Hall. Mayor Jon Mitchell says the situation regarding the Fire Department's budget needs to be put into context. Speaking on his weekly radio program, Mitchell says his administration is negotiating with the fire union, and the scheduled brownouts are not going to last forever... Read M

A group of concerned citizens is planning to march on New Bedford City Hall this week, protesting the ongoing rolling blackouts of the City's fire stations. Due to overtime costs, the City has opted to shut down one station every day in an effort to combat a budget deficit of over $1 million...

Mayor Jon Mitchell says brownouts in the City's fire department will likely continue through the end of this fiscal year. The brownouts are the City's way of preventing a deficit caused by increased overtime spending throughout the past year...