A sign in support of the Jamestown Fire Department is pictured in a storefront window and next to a fire alarm call box at the intersection of West Third and Cherry streets. P-J photo by Eric Tichy

As the City Council continues to hold discussions regarding the hiring of eight additional firefighters through a three-year grant funding program, Deputy Fire Chief Matthew Coon shared his perspective regarding the opportunity he believes the city has to increase public safety.

Coon told The Post-Journal the Jamestown Fired Department has had to temporarily “brown out” one of the city’s fire stations each shift due to a lack of staffing. While City Hall’s fire station, Fire Station One, remains open 24/7, Coon said the three “outlying stations are closed on a daily rotating schedule in order to ensure coverage at every station at varying times.”

When the decision was made to reduce the Jamestown Fire Department’s staffing in 2002, Coon said the best solution was to temporarily close a fire station, which continues to be done through the rotating schedule today.

Coon said the Jamestown Fire Department recognizes the financial strain that caused the city to reduce staffing in 2002. Since the city “only has so much budget,” he said the department chose to find a creative solution with the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response grant.

“Being the recipient of that award, and as long as council agrees to lift the hiring freeze to bring additional personnel on, we would be able to actually be at full staffing for the first time in 21 years,” he said.

Asked about the City Council’s financial concerns with the proposal to add eight additional firefighters, Coon said he is both “sympathetic and appreciative” of the City Council’s concern, as the addition of eight firefighters could potentially add to the fire department’s budget after the three years of SAFER grant funding is expended.

“I respectfully submit though that in the interest of public safety, we have a glaring need,” he said. “We have more calls than people to run them. It is going to take certainly some diligence, and I appreciate council’s questioning on that because they certainly want to know how this is sustainable going forward into the future, but at the present moment, this is the most inexpensive solution that we could do in order to bring on additional staff.”

DIFFERENT OPTIONS

Coon explained that there are different options for the city to achieve financial stability in the future if the additional eight firefighter positions are approved. According to Coon, there are “three different options” the city would be faced with down the road.

First, the City Council could reduce the number of fire department positions through attrition. As firefighters retire in the next few years, Coon said the City Council could simply choose not to refill the positions of retiring firefighters.

The second option Coon mentioned would be for the city to layoff the additional firefighters after the SAFER grant funding is expended; however, he acknowledged that a layoff is typically met with “a lot of animosity,” such as when the city had to layoff police, firefighters and other staff members in 2002.

Coon said the third option to achieve financial stability while also increasing public safety would be for the city to reapply for the SAFER grant after the three year grant program is completed.

“I don’t foresee the need for additional personnel to go away, so really, it would be something that to me would be a justification to continue the grant process,” he said. “Being that we proved that need, so long as the federal funding remains in place, I don’t foresee the federal government taking that funding away. To me, that’s the best way for us to be able to secure funds in the future is to certainly point out that the funds that we’re using from the federal government to maintain our staffing is certainly having a positive impact on the community.”

While Coon is optimistic that the city will be awarded the SAFER grant again in the future based on the need Jamestown demonstrated in its recent grant application, he acknowledged that this was the first time the city had been awarded the SAFER grant, despite applying for the grant in the past. Nevertheless, Coon said the city would have three years to determine how to proceed in the future.

FILLING POSITIONS

If the City Council approves the resolution proposed to lift the hiring freeze and hire eight additional firefighters, Coon said the Jamestown Fire Department will follow its “normal hiring process” by using the established civil service list of potential candidates. Coon said his department has already sent out letters to candidates on the list in order to fill the five positions approved by the City Council in March. After the potential candidates receive letters from the city, they indicate whether they are still seeking employment.

“We’ll certainly go to that pool, and that’s how we’ll draw our candidates out,” Coon said. “There’s an interview process as part of that that we’ll schedule up. There’s a physical agility portion of it, that we evaluate candidates on their physical capabilities to perform firefighting duties, and they obviously have to have their emergency medical technician certification. That is something that’s required at the time of appointment.”

Asked how long the process would take to hire the additional firefighters, Coon said it typically takes the Jamestown Fire Department about 60 days to hire firefighters. Between the five positions already approved by the City Council and the proposal for an additional eight candidates, Coon estimates it would take roughly 60 to 90 days to bring all 13 firefighters on board.

Asked about the training process, Coon said the Jamestown Fire Department is in a unique situation this year with the hiring of five firefighters approved last month and the potential for the hiring of an additional eight firefighters. If the City Council approves the hiring of the eight additional firefighters through the SAFER grant funding, Coon said the fire department is considering hosting an academy in Jamestown.

“It’s not something that we can singularly do, so we would be partnering with the Office of Fire Prevention and Control in Chautauqua County to be able to provide instructors that are state certified to teach fire schools,” he said. “Our hope is to bring those instructors down in addition to using some of the fire department’s personnel that are already trained to do that, to be able to run an in-house academy and get them trained here.”

Asked if there would be any other way to fund the eight additional firefighters if the City Council chooses not to lift the hiring freeze and utilize the SAFER grant funding, Coon said he is not aware of any other potential funding sources that would cover the cost of additional personnel. While there are grant programs available for both equipment and community outreach and education, Coon said the SAFER grant is the only grant that would provide funding for staffing.

“When it comes to personnel, that’s obviously the most expensive portion of running the fire department,” he said. “It is difficult to get other funding there to pay for personnel.”

In light of this, Coon said the city has a unique opportunity to be able to hire additional firefighters through the SAFER grant program.