Wednesday evening the Lima Police Department and the Lima Fire Department met with the finance committee to discuss their 2019 budget.
In 2019 the Lima Police Department requested a $10.5 million budget, with 93.5 percent of it going towards personnel. Although this is a $350,000 higher budget than in 2018, the chief of police says it’s important to take care of the officers.
“Well most everything we do involves people and I don’t believe that anytime within our lifetime they’re going to invent a robot that will be able to replace human beings and policing,” said Kevin Martin, Lima Police Chief. “So we need officers out there interacting with people. We need officers out there investigating crimes. We need officers out there trying to prevent crime.”
The Lima Fire Department is requesting a $9.2 million budget, which is about $20,000 less than in 2018. Ninety-two percent of its budget this year will be going towards salary and fringes for its firefighters.
“We, out of the 75 employees that are budgeted this year in the fire department, are working right now,” said Bruce Black Lima Fire Department Chief. “We only have one civilian employee. The rest are all firefighters. Out of those firefighters, 95 percent of them are on the streets doing emergency calls.”
Jan. 24 will conclude the last day of the city budget hearings.
