Tighter public-safety budgets considered

Kalispell's government proposes spending $136,000 less on fire and police protection in fiscal 2010 than it expects to in fiscal 2009.

The Kalispell City Council discussed those proposals Monday at a workshop.

The combined police and fire budget for fiscal 2010 is pegged at $6.022 million, about 66 percent of the city's general fund.

The proposed fire budget is $2.308 million, a drop of about $25,000. The proposed police budget is roughly $3.17 million, a drop of almost $112,000.

For the police, this would fund 35 officers. But the department has only 33 sworn officers, with a hiring freeze on until a new city manager can review the situation later this year. The department also needs an animal control warden, but has not found the money to hire for that position, Police Chief Roger Nasset said.

The police force is seeking grants to increase its budget.

The fire department expects to budget for 34 full-time-equivalent employees in fiscal 2010, compared to 35 in fiscal 2009 and 39 in fiscal 2008.

But the fire department also is under a hiring freeze, and currently has 33 people.

The fire department, which also handles ambulance calls outside Kalispell, handled at least 4,500 calls in fiscal 2009 and expects to respond to 4,800 calls in fiscal 2010.

Some overtime, replacing an ambulance and hiring extra people have been put on hold because of budget constraints.

For more on this story, read Wednesday's Daily Inter Lake.