The Board of Mayor and Alderman extended the deadline to close a city fire station by four months at Tuesday’s board meeting and canceled a town hall meeting that was planned for Tuesday evening.

The deadline was delayed from its originally scheduled date of Feb. 1 because of the work Fire Chief Charles Atkins has done to hire more employees and cut overtime in the department.

By June 1 the board should decide whether or not Fire Station No. 6 or Fire Station No. 7 should close.

“I think it’s the most reasonable and cautious thing to do is to give him [Atkins] more time and let him continue to manage it in a way that meets the needs of the city and according to our budget agreement,” Mayor George Flaggs Jr. said.

During the meeting, it was announced the fire department has hired seven entry-level firefighters and cut unscheduled overtime by 2,600 hours compared to last year at this time.

“One of the situations that I was told to do was reduce some of the overtime, and I believe I was heading in the right direction on that resolution,” Atkins said.

In a press release Flaggs said overtime was reduced by $29,033.98 for the first quarter of the 2016 fiscal year.

“I commend him,” Flaggs said after the board meeting. “I think they’re going in the right direction. We just need to keep monitoring and make certain that we continue to do what we’re doing.”

Atkins said he has plans to hire more firefighters by the beginning of February at the latest. Right now the newly hired firefighters are in EMT school to start learning the firefighting process during their probationary period. Later, they will move on to the Mississippi State Fire Academy to learn professional skills.

“At this time we’re just introducing them to some of the situations,” Atkins said. “They’ll be working in the fire station now, but under guarded situations. They won’t be able to participate in live firefights or anything like that.”

The option of opening a new fire station will also impact the possible closing of one of the current fire stations.

Flaggs said the city could not afford to open a new station without closing another one, and the department would have to transfer manpower from one station to the other.

“If the overtime continues to go down then it would be unnecessary to close any of them down,” Flaggs said.

Atkins said if a new station is opened or if an old station is closed the department would have to look into redrawing district lines, but he isn’t quite looking that far ahead yet.

“That’s something that’s in the future,” Atkins said. “We do have plans for that. That would be an asset to the Vicksburg Fire Department and the city of Vicksburg and Warren County.”

He did ask to meet with the board at a later date to discuss the details of the stations.

“We’re just going to wait and see what they tell me after that meeting,” Atkins said.