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Public safety director seeks federal SAFER grant to add six firefighter‑EMTs; county would inherit recurring costs after three years
Summary
Public safety director asked commissioners to authorize application for FEMA SAFER grant to fund six firefighter‑EMTs for three years; application is competitive and, if awarded, would reduce county staffing cost over the grant period but add recurring personnel costs afterward.
Public safety director Casey Dasher told the board the county will apply for the FEMA SAFER (Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response) grant, a nationwide program that subsidizes firefighter positions for three years.
Grant scope and rationale: Dasher said the grant would fund six firefighter‑EMT positions for three years, a move he argued would improve the county’s Insurance Services Office (ISO) deployment scores and help meet national staffing models. He said Hardee County typically has 11–13 firefighters responding to structure fires while a 16‑person deployment model is a common ISO benchmark.
Cost and savings: Dasher presented a three‑year cost projection of $1,172,553 for the six positions and said an award would produce a projected savings to the county of $718,940 over the three years. He described the grant as highly competitive and said federal cost‑share rules had shifted in recent cycles; he noted prior experience winning SAFER at a former agency but emphasized the difficulty of success.
Retention and operations: Dasher discussed recruitment and retention strategies and pay‑step increases designed to improve retention. He said retention has improved recently and that equipment and facility investments were also helping morale.
Next steps: Dasher asked the board to authorize submission of the SAFER application; commissioners asked about how the county would handle recurring costs after the three‑year grant period, and Dasher said options could include budget adjustments, the fire assessment fee, or other FY planning.
