SALISBURY — The Salisbury City Council held the public hearing for the upcoming fiscal year’s budget on Tuesday, and representatives and supporters of the local firefighter union flooded the hearing to ask for “100 percent funding of the fire department.”

That slogan comes from the process city management utilized to bring forward a conservative budget, which included asking all of the city departments to decrease their discretionary budgets by 10 percent, reducing their funding for training, supplies and more, but not for services or staffing.

“What would a 10-percent cut to the firefighters look like?” said Salisbury Professional Firefighters Union Local 2370 President Ethan Chirico. “Maybe it creates less household supplies at the fire station, so we need to dip into our wages to fill that hole. Maybe cuts reduce turnout gear purchases, so firefighters are forced to wear dirty or old gear, which puts us at a greater risk for occupational cancer. Or, maybe they stop overtime for training recruits and getting certifications, because we have spent all of our overtime money simply filling under-staffed fire trucks.”

Another point that several speakers made was on the funding of six new firefighter positions that are included in City Manager Jim Greene Jr.’s budget. While those positions are recommended, the funding is only included through the FEMA Staffing For Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grant, which the city is currently in the application process for. Greene said that if the city does not receive that grant, which happened last year, those positions will not be funded with his proposed budget.

“When you call 911, you don’t want the minimum number of responders the city could get away with sending, you want as many responders as it’s going to take to save your home, save your spouse, save your kid. All those are things you don’t want to see being gambled with in the budget. We’re not asking for a luxury, we’re only asking for enough to provide good care to our neighbors, enough to respond safely and effectively and enough to protect Salisbury the way its citizens and visitors deserve,” said Vinnie Messina, board member for Greensboro’s firefighter union.

Former Salisbury Mayor Al Heggins also spoke about the 10-percent cut, saying that several departments represented areas where funding should never be cut. She asked the city to fully fund the water and sewer, police and fire protection, adding that when cutting from those vital services it is “the most vulnerable who will suffer the most when our first responders are understaffed, underfunded and can’t respond to their needs.”

“These three departments need full funding. Of these three, the department we have the tendency to sacrifice is the fire department. These men and women are truly our first line of protection when saving a life or lives count,” said Heggins.

Hannah Adair also spoke and added her support to a potential one-cent property tax increase, which would add approximately $453,000 in revenue for the city. Greene previously projected a 1.1-cent increase would be enough to fund the $500,000 estimated cost of the six firefighter positions.

“At our last meeting (Mayor Pro Tem Harry) McLaughlin suggested a step compensation plan and questioned the mental load that firefighters are facing by over-working. (Council Member David) Post suggested a one cent tax increase on the property tax in order to fund what we need in the fire department. These moves are in the right direction,” said Chirico.

While the fire department was the main topic of conversation, it was not the only one. DeeDee Wright spoke about the funding for the Fred Evans Pool, questioning whether the proposed $43,000 was enough.

Clyde questioned several aspects of the budget, primarily the lack of funding for the Civic Center on Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue and funding for other projects around the city, such as the removal of the Fisher Street Bridget, the recent purchase of the building on Calhoun Street and the potential sale of The Plaza at the corner of Main and Innes streets.

Clyde also asked the City Council to consider allowing for public comments at special meetings held for budget discussions.

Jason Walser said that he understood the difficulties in preparing a $118 million budget, but that he wanted to voice his approval of the budget itself and especially the inclusion of capital funding to construct sidewalks on Brenner Avenue around the VA Medical Center and the approximately $400,000 increase to the Parks and Recreation budget. Walser also said that he viewed the Yadkin River Pump Station project which recently lost $22.5 million in FEMA funding as a priority and was willing to help make that possible if he could.

During the public hearing and surrounding discussion, Post said that he agreed with Clyde on the public comment idea.

McLaughlin was unable to be present during the hearing as he was driving back from his daughter’s graduation. However, he arrived later in the meeting and said that he was able to listen along remotely and wanted his fellow council members to remain “open-minded about how we can ensure those six firefighter positions.”