The City Council is expected to vote on two resolutions that would provide funding for additional full-time fire fighters in Jamestown. Pictured is Deputy Fire Chief Matthew Coon during Monday’s City Council meeting. P-J photo by Timothy Frudd

The Jamestown Professional Fire Fighters Association is urging the City Council to accept the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response grant that the city was awarded in February.

According to the Jamestown Professional Fire Fighters Association, the grant would give the city $1,816,201 in grant funding to provide “adequate fire and rescue protection” for the Jamestown community. The SAFER grant is for three years and is funded through the Federal Emergency Management Agency. If accepted, the grant would fully cover both the salary and benefits of eight additional Jamestown firefighters.

In a press release provided by the Jamestown Professional Fire Fighters Association, local firefighters said the “community concerns” pertaining to staffing levels at the Jamestown Fire Department “have not faded.”

“The safety of our community continues to be our top priority and our union has partnered with city officials to address dangerous staffing deficiencies by identifying alternative funding sources such as the SAFER grant.” Ben McLaughlin, president of Jamestown Professional Fire Fighters, said.

The union believes the acceptance of the SAFER grant award will provide “significant relief” to the issues the city faces with fire department staffing, while providing the resources needed to deploy a second ambulance in Jamestown to provide adequate emergency responses services to local residents.

The City Council will vote on whether or not to accept the SAFER grant funding during its monthly voting session on Monday.

“Jamestown Professional Fire Fighters are asking our fellow citizens to join us by urging our City Council to accept the SAFER award and applauding them for taking this important first step to providing our community with the adequate fire and EMS response you deserve,” the Jamestown Professional Fire Fighters Association wrote in its press release.

During a recent City Council work session, Deputy Fire Chief Matthew Coon told council members that the Safer grant program is something that the Jamestown Fire Department has wanted to be a recipient of for “many years.”

Coon explained that the Jamestown Fire Department has not been at full staffing levels since 2002. With the grant funding, Coon said the city would be able to hire eight additional full-time firefighters to help achieve the Jamestown Fire Department’s goal of opening all the city’s fire stations. Coon also said the additional firefighters could help the city have enough personnel to deploy a second ambulance in Jamestown

One of the main issues potentially facing the city with the grant funding is how to get each of the new fire recruits trained. Between the proposal to hire eight firefighters through the SAFER grant funding and the city’s proposal to hire five additional firefighters under the city’s 2023 budget to fill current and anticipated vacancies, the city will have to train 13 new fire fighter recruits.

“We’re currently trying to put together a program to train them all locally, using some in-house personnel as well as some of our state instructors that are in this portion of the state,” Coon said. “We’ve also been in contract with the Office of Fire Prevention and Control, the deputy fire chief and the Fire Academy; they’re willing to partner with us to also help to enable us to run a local training program here. It’d be very difficult for the Fire Academy to accommodate a large number of students just from one particular municipality, since each municipality in New York state competes for positions there, and the class sizes are restricted.”

Coon said that given the cost of training a recruit fire fighter, training them “in-house” would be the most cost-effective option for the city, especially with limited training equipment that would be needed for each recruit if they were trained at various academies throughout the state. According to Coon, the cost for each recruit to be trained at the Fire Academy is about $4,000, which would cost the city over $50,000 for each of the 13 firefighters expected to be hired. Coon believes the city can save money by training the firefighters in Jamestown.

While Coon explained that the City Council funded additional turnout gear for the Jamestown Fire Department in the 2023 budget, both Mayor Eddie Sundquist and City Council members believe the city would have to cover additional expenses for the new firefighters’ equipment if the resolutions are passed by the City Council. Coon told council members that the SAFER grant covers wages, benefits and contributions for retirement; however, the grant does not cover any training or equipment expenses.

Finance Committee Chairwoman Kim Ecklund, R-At Large, asked the city administration to provide additional documentation for anticipated expenses prior to Monday’s voting session.

“I think it’s fair to say that while this grant covers a lot of the expenses, there are expenses that are going to be incurred in the budget that we may or may not have in there,” she said. “With all due respect, we should be made aware of that.”

City Councilman Jeff Russell, R-At Large, also pointed out that the SAFER grant would provide funding for three years, but that at the end of the three-year period, the city could potentially have to face the difficult choice of laying off the additional eight firefighters, if additional funding is not made available.

“Obviously, we would apply for the FEMA grant once again at the end of that three-year period, but if we don’t get the grant, I’ll say now because I want to be very transparent about this, we could lay off firefighters,” he said. “I don’t want to move forward three years from now and then when we come back and say, well we have to lay firefighters off people act like there were smoke and mirrors going on and we weren’t forthright by telling the people that that was a possibility.”

On the other hand, Russell said Coon has provided the City Council with documentation showing a number of fire fighter personnel that would be eligible for retirement by the end of the three-year grant period. Based on the information Coon shared with the City Council, through “attrition and retirements” the city could potentially keep the additional eight firefighters hired under the SAFER grant program.

Another potential issue Ecklund pointed out in the SAFER grant program is the requirement for the city to maintain a certain level of staffing throughout the grant program. The staffing level requirement would include the four firefighters hired through the American Rescue Plan Act funding; however, Sundquist explained that the city could potentially request a reduction in staffing from FEMA if needed.

“We received a waiver from FEMA, which allows us to not have a cost share, as well as we do not need to continue those numbers after that third year period,” he said. “That’s mostly because of our poverty levels in the city, as well as the number of fire calls that we run and the need for fire suppression, so we were able to get a waiver for that and remove some of the additional requirements. If indeed we do need to reduce that, it’s not that we can’t reduce it. It’s just we need to get permission from FEMA to adjust that number, which they have done to other cities, depending on just what numbers are at.”

Despite Sundquist’s assurances, Ecklund said the possibility of FEMA waving additional requirements for the grant program is “not a guarantee.” As a result, Ecklund asked for the city administration to provide additional “year-by-year” financial information “as soon as possible.”

Asked about the impact the grant would have on staffing levels, Coon said the grant funding would allow the city to have a minimum of 12 firefighters at all time to keep all of the fire stations open in Jamestown.

Asked about how it would impact the city’s ISO rating, Coon said the additional firefighters could raise the city’s rating to a better level, which could help with insurance rates. Sundquist added that the city will shortly be up for its 10-year ISO rating assessment.

City officials also highlighted the potential for the SAFER grant funding to allow firefighters to more efficiently respond to fire emergencies while also operating emergency services such as the city ambulance, without operating at limited capacity.

“We have more calls than we have the capacity to run at certain times, so having additional resources available to answer those calls,” Coon said. “It certainly will allow our suppression effort to stay at that level that it should be.”