North Myrtle Beach Public Safety makes training cuts in new budget

North Myrtle Beach Public Safety is making cuts in its training department.

The city is cutting 39.7% of its entire public safety training department expenditures, which adds up to $103,775 in cuts.

Most of the cuts are in personnel salaries.

Some Barefoot residents are concerned about the budget cuts.

Martha Green, of Whistling Duck Drive, says her 75-year-old husband and her were woken up by their son, who lives nearby, when the wildfires hit Barefoot Resort on April 23rd.

“Mr. Green and I probably would’ve, not (been) here today and a lot of our neighbors wouldn’t have been here either if it hadn’t been for our son blowing his horn, and calling people on the cell phone and trying to warn people,” said Green.

Green says if a natural disaster happens again in the future, she hopes to learn about it first from North Myrtle Beach Public Safety. She says she’s worried about significant cuts made by public safety to next year’s budget for training officers.

Mayor Marilyn Hatley says the cuts were a result of the economic recession, before the wildfire even happened.

“This budget was prepared months ago, and it took many months to prepare this budget….We would never, ever, not have our firefighters and our PSO officers ready, prepared for any emergency,” Hatley said.

Mayor Hatley says people won’t see any changes in emergency response, regardless of the cuts.