PHOENIX, Ore.- Jackson County Fire District 5 addressed its financial issues during its Board of Directors meeting Tuesday night, following the termination of the former fire chief.
Last week, former Fire Chief Charles Hanley’s contract with the fire district was terminated after he was found guilty of misconduct.
In that same meeting Hanley’s termination was announced, Union President Brady Graham said the board was going to look into possible financial misconduct from Hanley as well.
Interim Fire Chief Aaron Bustard says a major shortfall of $1.5 million was discovered in May.
“We’ve been forced to make a decision on how many people, basically, that we can staff per day. We want to keep three personnel on every fire engine. Because of that, we’re down to where we can staff two fire engines a day,” Bustard said.
At this time, the Board of Directors has made budget cuts like shutting down all purchasing, canceling the purchase of a fire engine to replace one lost in a collision, overtime being canceled and more.
Board of Directors Chair Gregory Costanzo says this isn’t a time to spread rumors of bankruptcy and dissolvement, but a time to find the right solutions.
“What’s going to happen over the next couple months is solutions need to be made by people instead of just talking about the problem. We want to listen to solutions,” Costanzo said.
Costanzo encourages citizens to attend these board meetings and give their feedback.
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