BY MARK J. CRAWFORD
Telegraph Editor
STARKE — Starke Commissioner Danny Nugent has requested more funding for Starke’s fire department in next year’s budget.
The topic was not on the June 6 meeting agenda for discussion or a vote, and so the request went nowhere. Nugent asked that the fire department budget be on the agenda for June 20, a meeting he first said he couldn’t attend before realizing he would be there.
Nugent wants the commission to take $250,000 out of its reserve funding and place it in the Starke Fire Rescue budget, allowing the department to retain some of its manpower in the face of imminent cuts.
Starke City Manager Drew Andrews recommended cutting the firefighting budget from $1.59 to $1.04 million next year.
Nugent was one of the three votes to move forward with a budget that prioritizes utility infrastructure improvements by reducing the amount of utility revenue transferred to general government and cutting the budgets for both the police and fire departments.
Mayor Scott Roberts pointed out the discussion and recommended action were not on the agenda and placing it on the agenda for June 20 would add more to an already busy meeting.
June 20 is the date city commissioners invited Sheriff Gordon Smith and County Manager Scott Kornegay to present information on potentially consolidating the police department with the sheriff’s office and the fire department with Bradford County Fire Rescue.
Roberts said June 20 was chosen so everyone would be in attendance.
Nugent then suggested the “budget amendment” be handled as an emergency item, with the commission voting to add it as an emergency item to the agenda and then acting.
Roberts said he didn’t know what to do with the request considering it was being brought up under commissioners’ comments and not “the appropriate time.”
“I think on the 20th, we’re going to take in a whole lot of considerations on a whole lot of things,” Roberts said, before Nugent tried turn his comment period over to Fire Chief Gary Wise.
The mayor told Nugent he had placed the entire board in an awkward position.
“I don’t appreciate that. It makes it look like I don’t want to discuss it,” Roberts said. “I think we’ve at a lot of discussion, and I think the chief is going to have a whole lot of time to talk on the 20th.”
Roberts told Nugent his comments were heard. Nugent said he just wanted to provide everyone with “food for thought” and “get the fire department straight.”
