Equipment requests, including two new pumpers for the Vicksburg Fire Department, top the list of requests from the city’s public safety departments.

Both departments show drops in payroll from Mayor George Flaggs Jr.’s mandate to budget departments at 97 percent of total revenues, and a decrease in employees. The fire department is down a total of 16 people in fire suppression and emergency medical.

Flaggs said he had no problems with the police department budget, adding, “I think the (2015) budget was adopted with 76 officers and should have been 81. I’m comfortable with that because I authorized overtime to crack down on after-hours crime.

“I think Chief (Walter) Armstrong has managed it as best he can, based upon the shortage of manpower, but overall I’m OK with it.”

He said he was not satisfied with the fire department budget, adding, “It needs more work. We need to go back to the drawing table.”

Flaggs did not elaborate.

The police department’s total proposed budget is $6.67 million, including $381,440 in capital expenses, which includes a van for the department’s crime scene division and an awning for the department.

“We have two crime scene people, and they are in pickups, which are not secure,” Armstrong said. “We’ve bought one van, and it’s being outfitted. We want to get a second van. Once we get the (second) van, we’ll give the trucks to community service.”

He said the awning will go between the police station’s booking area and the Ellis Building on the west side of the station.

“The reason is because medical personnel, as well as the officers, are exposed to the weather when they park between the buildings,” he said. “We’re going to cover that.”

Fire Chief Charles Atkins said the proposed $1.5 million in capital expenses in the fire department’s $6.41 million includes two pumpers, which cost about $400,000 each.

“We’re behind as far as getting that equipment, but we need two new pumpers starting off,” he said. “Hopefully, if we can stay on track of getting maybe two trucks a year, we’ll be in good shape.”

Atkins said he would like to purchase quint trucks, which are combination pumper and aerial trucks instead of the pumpers.

“If we get two of those, we’ll need more money, and we’ve got an aerial coming of age, but if we have those trucks, we can supplement that situation because they are a pumper truck and aerial,” he said.

He also wants to purchase 10 new sets of turnout gear, the suits firefighters wear to protect them, at a total cost of $20,000.

The fire department also provides emergency medical and ambulance service to the city and Warren County with a proposed 2016 budget of $4.8 million.

Atkins said he has proposed $2.5 million in capital expenses for the ambulance service.

That total includes plans to re-truck two ambulances at $63,000 each. Re-trucking the ambulance means putting a new patient module on the vehicle’s frame and can extend an ambulance’s life by about two years. He said a new ambulance costs about $132,000.

Besides the ambulance improvements, the capital budget includes money for Lifepak 12 defibrillators, which are used to monitor heart rates.

Atkins said he agrees with the recent change in the department policy to allow firefighters from other departments to transfer to Vicksburg, and recruiting 18-year-olds to the department.

Recruiting younger firefighters, he said, might help a young person become interested in making the department a career.