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Negotiations between the City of Edwardsville and the International Association of Firefighters, Local 64 continued this week with no resolution being reached.

On June 8, the union led a protest in front of Edwardsville City Hall against the potential layoff of a firefighter with the Edwardsville Fire Department due to a budget crisis the city is trying rectify. During that protest, Bob Wing, president of the union, met with Edwardsville Mayor John “Tiny” McTaggart and council member Mark Bishop, where a preliminary resolution was drafted.

That resolution was then presented to the local Edwardsville firefighters at a meeting, but neither the city nor the union will comment on the reaction of those firefighters to the preliminary solution.

For now, the layoff of the Edwardsville firefighter has been postponed, but city officials aren’t sure how much longer it can go on.

“I stuck my neck out to extend the deadline, but we’re getting close to the final deadline,” McTaggart said.

McTaggart said the response he got from the firefighters of the first proposal was neither a “yes” nor a “no.” He said the union had requested another meeting with the city for Friday, June 26.

Edwardsville City Administrator Michael Webb agreed with the mayor and said the city was in limbo on the issue.

“We did delay it at this point,” Webb said of the layoff. “Obviously, that can’t continue to happen. We’re kind of down to the wire. We’re just awaiting a response at this point.”

Union president Bob Wing said a federal mediator would be present at the Friday meeting where he hoped a final conclusion would be made, but could not comment further about the issue.

The issue of the firefighter layoff was first proposed when Edwardsville was faced with an almost $200,000 revenue shortfall in the 2009 budget because of an adjustment to the appraised property value of Millard Refrigeration. The city then began looking for ways to cut back to end the year with a balanced budget.

Since then, community members have collected more than 500 signatures on a petition and made numerous pleas during city council meetings in hopes the city will find other ways to fix the budget beside laying off an employee.

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