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Officials consider taking grant
BOARDMAN
The clock is ticking as township officials weigh whether to take a federal grant to recall three laid-off firefighters.
Last month, Boardman was awarded a $334,646 grant through the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response Program (SAFER).
The grant is to be used for hiring firefighters in Boardman, and the funds provide for salaries, benefits and general-equipment needs, according to the SAFER website.
One of the grant’s requirements is that the fire department could not dip below current firefighter staffing levels for the next two years, said township Administrator Jason Loree.
The fire department now has three fire-prevention employees, 32 firefighters, the fire chief and a secretary.
Three firefighters are set to retire in the next six to eight months, said Trustee Thomas Costello.
If the staff-ing level is counted at 29 firefighters, taking into account the retirements, rather than 32, then the township probably will accept the grant, Costello said.
“It hinges completely on the number. ... If it’s 32, it doesn’t leave much room. Our budget is so tight, we can’t afford to increase staffing levels whether we want to or not. If we can maintain our staffing levels but basically transfer the cost to the grant until we can work out our financing, that would be a perfect situation,” he said.
What the township wants to avoid is accepting the grant, having three firefighters retire and then having to hire three more people, Costello added.
The SAFER website does provide an example that is almost exactly the same as the township’s situation.
“A grantee has 20 firefighters [FFs] and receives a SAFER grant for five more FFs. One of the 20 FFs retires and is not replaced. The grantee would then be eligible to receive reimbursement only for four FFs instead of the original five,” according to the website.
Another stipulation is that SAFER-grant recipients “are prohibited from laying off any firefighters during the SAFER grant’s period of performance,” which is two years.
The SAFER grant performance period begins 90 days after the award has been approved. Boardman was awarded the grant Feb. 4.
“The goal with the SAFER grant is try to bring those three recalled folks back with free money for [two] years, knowing full well that without funding from a new levy, after that period they’ll go or if something were to happen and we’d cut a significant amount of money. ... Firefighters know that’s a risk we [would be] taking,” Loree said.