State funding for the Centralia and Salem Emergency Management units is in jeopardy as the state tries to finalize its budget.
Centralia City Manager Forest Langenfeld told the city council Monday night they will protest the loss of the $25,000 a year that finances an agency with 13 to 15 volunteers.
“ESDA fulfills a role that most emergency management agencies don’t do. We provide traffic control for police situations in need, auto accidents, fires, they are out there providing that and other services.”
Langenfeld says the state is looking at strictly funding to county-level Emergency Management Agencies which he doesn’t feel will work.
“It’s one thing to ask volunteers to do it within your community, but to assume they would automatically go into a county unit and do it, maybe get called to Kinmundy, that’s a lot to ask of volunteers. We are going to do everything we can to get this taken care of and if not we will be looking at the budget very hard.”
Langenfeld is gathering letters of support to keep the funding from various city departments as well as Wamac, Central City, and Irvington that also receive
services from the Centralia ESDA unit. The plan is to deliver the appeal to the regional ESDA office on Wednesday ahead of the Friday deadline to protest the
cuts.
Salem Emergency Management Agency Coordinator Terry Mulvaney confirms they are facing similar loss of state money which he expects to be discussed by city officials in the near future.
