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Watertown Council authorizes application for federal SAFER grant to hire up to nine firefighters
Summary
Watertown City Council voted to authorize a federal SAFER grant application that, if awarded, would fund up to nine new firefighter-paramedic positions phased over three years; staff said local matches would rise over the grant term and long-term funding plans will be required before full implementation.
Watertown City Council authorized the city to apply for the federal Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grant to add up to nine firefighter-paramedics across multiple grant cycles, a measure the fire chief said would help meet National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) deployment standards and reduce reliance on overtime.
Fire Chief Don Roland told the council the SAFER program supports departments that need to increase baseline staffing to meet NFPA 1710 benchmarks and that Watertown’s current staffing leaves the department short of those standards for many incidents. Roland said the city would apply in a phased approach (three new hires each grant cycle) to strengthen the case for reviewers and to align with a longer-term plan for an east-side fire station.
If the full nine positions were awarded over the cycles, staff estimated the long-term sustained cost to the city could reach roughly $750,000–$800,000 annually once local matches and ongoing payroll are included; the grant’s cost-share is 25% in years one and two and 65% in year three for positions funded by the grant. City Manager Alan Stagger noted the city would not accept later grant rounds without a long-term funding plan in place and stressed that applying preserved a competitive funding opportunity that does not appear regularly.
Council members asked about turnover, sustainability and the timeline for hiring if awarded. Chief Roland said awards are typically announced in late September, with hiring and onboarding the following six months, so any new employees funded by an award likely would not be in place until late 2027 if the city were selected.
The council voted to authorize the application.
