Metro Departments List Scenarios for Service Cuts in Response to Mayor Dean

Tennessean blogger, Michael Cass has got his mitts on possible service cuts that Metro Departments are proposing in response to Karl Dean's directive to see how they would be affected by 5, 10, & 15 percent cuts.

Here are a couple of the more disconcerting ones for neighborhoods:

The Nashville Fire Department could cut the equivalent of 194 employees, delaying its response times for some fires and medical emergencies.

Metro police might not be able to hire any new officers.

Looks like we are headed toward a cut-because-you-can approach to dealing with the budget this year. If the Mayor accepts these kinds of cuts, it is safe to say that neighborhoods may not have the priority that they had during the previous administration.

How is Karl Dean going to achieve his initiatives against youth violence with fewer cops? And if the first responders and police are going to be cut, you can count on Community Centers like the one at Morgan Park staying closed all weekend for the foreseeable future, but then we're going to need more cops to deal with the increased violence and vandalism of bored youth who have no Parks programming to keep them occupied.