Jamestown Deputy Fire Chief Matt Coon addresses Jamestown City Council (March 20, 2023)
Jamestown City Council members raised questions over long term funding for new firefighters from a federal grant.
The City of Jamestown was awarded $1.8 million in funding through the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) Grant Program that would allow the hiring of eight new firefighters. The grant through FEMA would cover three years of salaries.
Council member at large Jeff Russell expressed concern over what would happen if the City applies for funding again after three years and is denied, “I’ll say it now because I want to be very transparent about this. That there’s a possibility that we could lay off firefighters. 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,’ and people act like it was smoke and mirrors going on and we weren’t forthright by telling people that was a possibility.”
Deputy Fire Chief Matt Coon said the number of firefighters eligible for retirement in three years could help, through attrition, avoid lay-offs if the city doesn’t get grant funding again.
Council member at large Kim Ecklund recalled that the four firefighters hired using American Rescue Plan funds with the intention that attrition through retirement also would help prevent lay-offs once that funding ran out. She requested the administration provide a year-by-year cost of the twelve new positions funded by ARP and SAFER monies prior to the March 27 voting session.
Coon said if the new positions are approved and can be hired, it would allow all fire stations to be fully staffed at all times. He said a second ambulance, yet to be approved for purchase, also would be able to be manned, bringing in additional revenue to the city.
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