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Council authorizes FEMA SAFER grant application to fund a battalion chief/fire‑marshal position
Summary
The council authorized submission of a FEMA SAFER grant application seeking temporary federal funding to add a battalion chief/fire‑marshal position; staff discussed local cost-share implications and potential overtime savings.
The Town Council authorized town staff to submit an application to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grant to fund a battalion chief/fire‑marshal position.
Chief McCall outlined the department’s request and said the role would return the town to an administrative command-level position that focuses on fire prevention, inspections, technical plan review and investigations while also providing operational supervisory coverage. The chief said the position had been moved “back to the line” a few years earlier to increase apparatus staffing and that the department now seeks a dedicated administrative battalion chief to lead prevention and to serve as an additional command-level resource for incident management. McCall described the position as providing Monday–Friday administrative coverage while being available to assist with nights and weekends as needed to reduce callback and overtime pressures.
The SAFER grant schedule opened in June and closes in early July; Chief McCall said the grant’s reimbursement schedule requires a local cost share that grows over the multi-year grant: year 1 town share would be approximately $32,000, year 2 approximately $26,000 town share, and later-year costs would increase as FEMA’s portion decreases. The chief and council discussed how the town would fund the local share given that the municipal budget had already been adopted; McCall said staff would work with the finance office to identify current-year funding and build incremental costs into future budgets. The chief also noted that adding a fifth battalion chief would improve coverage (reducing overtime and callback costs) because four battalion chiefs do not provide full 24/7 coverage when accounting for vacations, training and sick leave.
Councilors asked about long-term fiscal impacts if grant funding were awarded and later reduced; Chief McCall said the SAFER grant’s multi‑year schedule means the town would incrementally assume a larger share and that staff would plan for those increases in subsequent budgets. Council voted to authorize submission of the SAFER grant application.
The council also discussed related personnel and scheduling impacts and asked staff to outline forecasted overtime savings and the budget path to absorb the long-term town share if the grant is awarded.
