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.

“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.

An article I read recently about the cuts specific to Richmond:

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2003/0309.wallace-wells.html

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.