Union members and city officials negotiated throughout the week at the suggestion of a judge. The union asked last week for a restraining order against the city to stop another budget-cutting plan, and the judge instead encouraged the talks.

But Friday, both sides announced the rotation of brownouts would resume in the same six fire houses as before - West End, downtown, South Fairmount, Oakley, Northside and Avondale.

Fire Chief Robert Wright said he chose those houses because each has more than one piece of fire equipment, so idling one fire truck would not completely shut down the houses.

In addition, Wright and union President Joe Diebold signed a list of new ideas the city will try to put in place to save money and minimize the number of times fire companies need to be idled. They include:

• Reassigning some 40-hour-a-week employees from their non-firefighting jobs like fire prevention and training to shifts on fire trucks.

• Allowing firefighters promoted to higher ranks to work below their ranks to fill staffing shortages.

• Possibly using some of the $100,000 left in a set-aside fund for firefighters' clothing and equipment to pay for overtime to cover for firefighters who are sick, taking compensating time off or are otherwise not at work.

Assistant City Manager Rashad Young said earlier this week that a return to brownouts was virtually a certainty to save the rest of the more than $2 million the city projected the fire department would go over budget if cuts weren't made.

Diebold said Friday that cuts have reduced that amount to about $1 million.

E-mail jprendergast@enquirer.com