The Pensacola Firefighters will be picketing city hall and the Pensacola International Airport on Tuesday, Sept. 10 from noon-6 p.m. over Mayor Ashton Hayward’s 2013-14 budget which proposes to reduce the number of on-site firefighters at the airport from nine to six.
In a flyer received by the newspaper, firefighter claim that the cuts will reduce airport emergency response by a third and will give the city less crash protection than any other Gulf Coast airport.
The protests come on the eve of the Pensacola City Council’s vote on the budget which is scheduled for Wednesday at 5:30 p.m.
Mayor Ashton Hayward has other outstanding issues regarding fire protection. The fire department has been operating under an acting chief, Matt Schmidt, since before Hayward took office. And the fire pension is yet to be closed.
