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Painesville council authorizes FEMA SAFER grant application to add three firefighters
Summary
Council unanimously authorized the City Manager to apply for a FEMA SAFER grant that would fund three additional firefighters, increasing daily staffing from six to seven; the department engaged Lexipol to prepare the competitive application and Council suspended the three-reading rule to meet the grant deadline.
Painesville City Council on June 1 unanimously authorized the city to apply for a FEMA Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grant that would fund three firefighter positions.
Fire Chief Tom Hummel told council the application window runs through June 22, 2026, and that the award structure mirrors prior SAFER grants: 75% federal funding in Years 1 and 2 and 25% in Year 3. He said the new hires would increase daily available staffing from six to seven personnel, reduce overtime and relieve workload stress on existing crews. “This would help with their workload, help with overtime, and help with the wear and tear on the personnel,” Hummel said.
Chief Hummel said the department engaged Lexipol, a firm with demonstrated experience winning SAFER awards, to write the application rather than the city’s standing general grant-writing firm. He said the cost of the grant writer was already budgeted. City Manager Doug Lewis confirmed the decision to use a specialist was intentional because SAFER is highly competitive.
Council voted to suspend the three-reading rule and to adopt Resolution 33-26 the same evening. On roll call the motion carried 6-0. Hummel provided a cost estimate for the city’s share under the grant structure: approximately $86,000 in Year 1, $90,000 in Year 2 and $247,000 in Year 3, figures he noted were less than the cost of a single firefighter for the first two years under usual staffing assumptions.
The vote commits the city to submit the application and accept the award if offered; it does not yet create permanent positions until funding and subsequent personnel actions are completed. The council did not discuss layoffs, offsets, or specific hiring timelines at the meeting; Chief Hummel said gear and PPE are budgeted from levy funds.
