Huntington, Ind. (Indiana's NewsCenter) - A $1.7M budget shortfall caused the city of Huntington to immediately layoff 6 firefighters on Friday.

The cuts also forced city leaders to shutdown the Huntington East End Fire Department.

Union leaders believe these are major cuts because four out of the six firefighters were also Emergency Response Technicians.

“When the check book says 0-0-0, and you don’t have money to pay people, you have to do something”, said Huntington Mayor Steve Updike.

Local 680 Union President Wayne Huff believes the cuts will have lasting effects.

“It’s not just the firefighters, jobs that are lost, it’s going to be the loss of services to the people out there in the community”, said Wayne Huff.

Firefighters estimate average response time will double and future cuts of four additional firefighters and three police officers could create an even greater response time for Huntington residents.

Friday’s cuts are the latest round of layoffs.

Huntington has now laid off twelve workers since Wednesday.

On Tuesday, Mayor Updike will present the Huntington City Council with a plan to increase garbage collection fees for every household by ten dollars a month.

No word on how quickly that plan could go into effect.

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