Council Slated To Vote On SAFER Grant

The Jamestown City Council is expected to vote tonight on the highly anticipated resolution that would hire eight additional firefighters under the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response grant.

After tabling the resolution during last month's voting session in an effort to get answers to lingering questions prior to voting on the resolution, City Council members met with Julia Barron, Federal Emergency Management Agency grant project manager, last week. While City Council members had hoped the SAFER grant could be accepted without hiring the full eight positions included in the resolution, Barron explained that the city would be required to hire all eight positions in order to meet the terms and conditions of the $1.8 million SAFER grant.

Multiple council members have expressed concerns over the past couple months regarding how the city will be able to pay for the eight additional positions after the three-year grant program expires. During that time, the City Council has also been pressured by the Jamestown firefighter union and community members to accept the grant in order to bring the Jamestown Fire Department to a full staffing level for the first time in more than two decades.

City Council President Anthony Dolce, R-Ward II, previously told The Post-Journal that a decision will be reached "one way or the other" regarding the SAFER grant at tonight's work session.

"There is a timetable for the grant," he said. "That was a question that I asked last week because we had already tabled it once. If we tabled it again, would we still have enough time to accept the grant because we have to get these individuals hired, get them trained and that sort of thing. The clock is running, so we have to make a decision. If we're going to go with this, it has to be by the end of May."

The City Council will vote on two pond payments during tonight's voting session. The first bond payment is for $396,399.00 in Public Improvement Bonds Refunding of 2010A Bonds, and the second bond payment is for $321,125.00 in Public Improvement Bonds, Refunding of 2011 Series A Bonds.

Following last week's report that the city's stop-loss insurance policy would be increasing by 37%, the City Council will also vote tonight on a resolution authorizing Mayor Eddie Sundquist to execute an agreement with Highmark Life Insurance Company of New York for a stop-loss insurance policy that will run from June of this year until May of next year. The insurance program will cost the city $175,000.