LANCASTER, Ohio -- A follow up to a story NBC 4 brought you on Monday out of Lancaster, firefighters voted last night to give up a three percent pay raise in order to spare five of their fellow members from losing their jobs. Earlier this week, City Council approved the 2009 city budget that called for the elimination of five firefighter positions.
Agreeing to give up the raises would save the city $330,000 short of the $390,000 in cuts called for in the budget. The International Association of Fire Fighters Local 291 Union President K.J. Watts tells NBC 4’s Patrick Preston, the city can tap a 2005 levy fund with a carryover balance to make up the $60,000 difference.
City Council President Ken Culver said the union vote was a welcome gesture and expects that council will agree to make up the $60,000 in another way to save the positions. NBC 4 spoke with two of the five firefighters slated to lose their jobs and both men said they were elated and touched by their fellow firefighters’ decision to sacrifice pay to keep them on the job.
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