Plentiful sunshine. High near 95F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph..
Clear skies. Low 56F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph.
The City of Lindsay will receive $2 million in funding for firefighting training and equipment. City Manager Joe Tanner said the funding should go a long ways in helping the city of Lindsay to once again completely establish separate Police and Fire Departments.
The funding is part of Assembly Bill 178, the Budget Act of 2022. The bill passed both the State Senate and State Assembly and was approved by Governor Gavin Newsom on Thursday.
The request of $2 million in funding for firefighter training and equipment was made on behalf of Lindsay by State Senator Melissa Hurtado, who submitted a number of requests for projects in her district, District 14, to be funded.
Due to budget constraints the city of Lindsay consolidated its police and fire departments into a Public Safety Department decades ago. When Hurtado came to Lindsay last fall to announce previous state funding that was awarded to the city, she commented she had never heard of such a thing in which the police and fire departments were combined into one department.
The City of Lindsay is moving toward at least kind of a hybrid format in which it can operate its police and fire as sort of separate divisions. City of Lindsay Police Chief Rick Carrillo will continue to serve as the chief for the entire Department of Public Safety for the time being.
Tanner said the city is still a ways away from being able to hire a fire chief on a permanent basis and establishing completely separate police and fire departments.
“We're not quite there budget-wise,” said Tanner about funding the personnel to have completely separate police and fire departments on an ongoing basis.
When asked if the city could have completely separate police and fire departments in the future, Tanner said, “I think so. I think that would be a great goal for us. I think we'll get there eventually.”
Tanner said the $2 million Lindsay is set to receive is much needed. “The last 10 years there hasn't been a lot invested in equipment and training,” he said.
Tanner said the $2 million will be used for the purchase of new breathing tanks to replace the breathing tanks the city currently has, vehicles, uniforms and helmets. “The whole nine,” said Tanner about the equipment and apparatus the funding would be used for.
Tanner said the city currently has one full-time firefighter and in its effort to establish more separate police and fire divisions, the city is set to hire two more full-time firefighters. Along with those full-time firefighters, Tanner said the city will have seven or eight volunteer firefighters for a more beefed up fire division.
He said the AB Bill 178 funding would allow to make sure the two full-time firefighters coming on would have all the equipment they need so “they're ready to go” when they begin. He added the beefed up fire division will free up the city's police officers to do “actual police work.”
Among the other cities set to receive funding from AB 178 in Hurtado's district as requested by Hurtado are Farmersville and Lindsay. Farmersville would receive $7 million for the construction of a first station and Woodlake would receive $7 million for a civic center, police department and citizen service center.
Sorry, there are no recent results for popular videos.
Sorry, there are no recent results for popular commented articles.