Some creative budget making at Seattle City Hall has saved some critical emergency services.
It was March of 2020; the pandemic was at full fever and the West Seattle Bridge was suddenly shutdown for repairs.
City Councilmember Lisa Herbold quickly became concerned about response times for fire fighters and paramedics “it’s the difference between a 6-minute response and an 8-to-10-minute response.”
So, she huddled with Fire Chief Harold Scoggins and made arrangements to add a ladder company at Station 37 in Roxhill and a Medic Unit at Station 26 in South Park. “Folks in my district who received the lifesaving services actually got in touch (with the city) and told us the stories” Herbold told Northwest Newsradio.
But in the world of city government that was emergency funding and there was nothing in the mayor’s new budget to pay for these emergency services for another two years. “There were changes to the mayors proposed budget” Herbold says it didn’t take much to convince the mayor and the city council that these services are badly needed “10 million dollars that we cut to pay for this.”
Ten million dollars now pays for these emergency services for the next two years. Money that was originally intended for Homeless Megaplex near the Chinatown International District.
