NBFD Brownouts to Continue Through End of Fiscal Year

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. Speaking on his weekly radio program, Mitchell says it's not feasible to raise taxes in order to remedy the problem. "I don't think it makes sense to continue to do that. Especially where we have a fire department that is roughly the size it was forty years ago when there were far more fires in the city," said Mitchell.

Mitchell says it will take a plan to deal with the longterm challenges in the fire department before the brownouts could be phased out. He adds it will be a few months before a plan can be fully formulated.