Mineral Wells council approves application for FEMA SAFER grant and OKs $3,000 Lexipol contract for writing

The Mineral Wells City Council voted to approve a resolution authorizing the city to apply for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grant and to allow the city manager to enter a master services agreement with Lexipol for grant-writing services in the amount of $3,000.

Staff said the application would request funding for three firefighter positions. The fire‑related staffing increase would raise the department’s maximum staffing to 10 and its minimum to nine, staff said. The SAFER grant structure presented in the meeting provides 75% of employee costs in the first year, 75% in the second year and 35% in the third year, according to staff. The city will need to accept the grant formally if it is awarded; staff emphasized the council could decline an award later if fiscal conditions change.

Why it matters: the SAFER grant helps municipalities offset the cost of hiring to increase fire and emergency response staffing. Staff said, if awarded, funding typically would not begin until about a year after the application window closes and the city would factor the positions into fiscal-year budgeting; staff projected start dates likely in fiscal years 2026–27 depending on award timing and administrative processing.

Council then considered a second item to authorize a master services agreement with Lexipol for grant-writing work. Staff described the $3,000 contract as payment for narrative writing and a specialist review to complement analytics already gathered by the city. “The master service agreement here in front of you is basically asking Lexipol to write the narrative portion for this grant as we provide them the analytics,” staff said.

Staff noted the city previously won a SAFER award in 2017 but had not been successful in subsequent attempts and that the city sought professional grant-writing help to improve the application. The council approved both measures by voice vote. For the SAFER application resolution the council recorded the vote as 7–0; the Lexipol master services agreement was also approved 7–0.

Ending: Staff said the application will be submitted and, if the city is awarded the grant, the council would return to the dais to formally accept and to incorporate the positions into future budget assumptions if appropriate.