York firefighter training school starts year with lighter budget

(York) -- Many county-funded programs are figuring out how they'll operate this year with less money, after dozens of local governments passed lean spending plans at the end of 2012. 

One such facility is the York County Fire School in Manchester Township, which provides training to firefighters and emergency responders from the county and nearby areas.

It receives the bulk of its funding from York County, which cut the school's budget by roughly 10 percent this year to $274,500.

John Senft is with the Fire Chiefs and Firefighters Association of York County, which owns and operates the school.

He says he doesn't think the decline will affect operations. "I don't see the role of the school, you know, changing at all. Hopefully, the impact we see from this, as far as the students who attend the classes and that, would be minimal."

Senft says the school will most likely try to cut costs by conserving energy and maintaining user fees for the building.

Lancaster County has also slashed funding to its own public safety training center by about three percent.