City Manager Ryan McCrady says the city will reduce its staff by a total of 17 positions and should save almost $1.4 million as a result of the Voluntary Severance Plan (VSP) that was introduced earlier this year.
McCrady also says there will be no savings for this fiscal year, which will end next April. He said the savings should come in the next fiscal year, which obviously is 6 months away.
With some reductions in the police and fire departments, an obvious question is “Do the cuts go too deep?” especially in police and fire.
Another question that I’ll examine in the “City Hall Insider” feature in today’s print edition of the Decatur Tribune is: “If we couldn’t do without police overhires two years ago in order to keep a full complement of officers, and eliminate tremendous overtime amounts in the fire department, how can the city do it today?”
Did we need the overhires two years ago? Did we need to hire more firefighters to eliminate over a million dollars a year in overtime? Was the voluntary severance program the best way to approach the deficit in terms of reducing personnel?
Check out this week’s “City Hall Insider” with a look at the cuts in employment and if the positions eliminated make sense. How is the city manager doing in dealing with the deficit?
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How does a newspaper editor go from being “nice” to “nasty” in the eyes of some readers? I’ll explain how it doesn’t take much in my “Viewpoint” on page 3 of the print edition.
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The three-part series on the “Happy Days” of the 1950s continues this week in the print edition of the Tribune. Part 2 is about the Class of ‘59 getting together, sharing some memories, and how principal/teacher discipline was a lot different at the high school level back then that it is today. We’ll also look at some of the music and other parts of the “fabulous fifties”. The “Happy Days” article is on pages 4 and 5 of “Scrapbook”.
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The Decatur City Council met on Monday night and Tribune Reporter Patrick McDaniel was there and has a complete report of what happened on page 15 of this week’s edition.
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Decatur Tribune Sports Editor J. Thomas McNamara has reflections on the past football season from the coaches at Argenta-Oreana, MacArthur and St. Teresa High Schools on page 14.
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The front page of this week’s print edition of the Tribune is in PDF form which you can access by clicking the Tribune icon at the upper left of this page.
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I’ve written about only a few of the many stories that are in today’s print edition of the Decatur Tribune. It should be on the newsstands by 1:00 this afternoon (Wednesday).
You can also buy a copy at the Decatur Tribune office at 240 North Park Street, or receive the Trib by mail each week for $35.00 per year. Send you check or money order to: Decatur Tribune, P. O. Box 1490, Decatur, Illinois 62525, and join the thousands of people who subscribe by the year. They live in Decatur and virtually every state.
For convenience in subscribing, there’s one of our subscription forms in PDF form which is accessible by clicking the Decatur Tribune icon at the upper left on this page. Print it out, fill out the coupon at the bottom and send with your check or money order for $35.00 and we’ll get your Tribune started immediately.
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Don’t forget to join me for the live audio version of the City Hall Insider on Byers & Co. at 7:00 a.m. Thursday mornings over 1340 NEWS/TALK WSOY. I always enjoy discussing the city’s issues with Brian.
