The Park Ridge Fire Department in Illinois needs extra fire fighters. Many are on injury leave, and the routinely understaffed. Deputy Fire Chief Bruce Ziegle says the fire department has been pushing the village to let them hire more staff for several years.
But village leaders insist they cannot afford new hires.
That is, until the United States government decided to pay for Park Ridge’s extra fire fighter.
The easiest way to see how the government helps create jobs is when it pays local governments for the salaries of new employees. Like Park Ridge, fire departments across the country welcomed $420 million in FEMA grants as they promised to hire new fire fighters.
“The village anticipates that within three years they think they will have sufficient funds,” Ziegle said. “This is a mechanism to at least begin funding it.”
Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) proudly touted the program and Park Ridge’s success when the grants were announced.
“He’s always supported funding on [the Staffing for Adequate Fire safety and Emergency Response grants programs,” said John Normoyle, Durbin’s press secretary. “If an Illinois fire district were to look for a letter of support, we always write it.”
The SAFER program, run by FEMA, helps fire departments hire desperately needed staff, rehire those who have been laid off for lack of funds and recruit more first responders. With the economic recession hitting some communities especially hard, this grant has gained increasing importance since it started in 2005. An article in the New York Times pointed out that in the past, the program has helped to rehire 252 fire fighters, kept 161 from losing their jobs and allowed cities to hire more than a thousand extra hands.
The goal, according to Rachel Racusen at FEMA, is to “increase their staffing with more ‘front line’ firefighters who can help keep communities safe.”
The program, which announced the recipients of the 2010 budget’s grant money throughout this April, gives much of its funding to small town programs like Park Ridge which received $200,000 for the salary and benefits for one new hire. Some programs received upwards of a million dollars. The Manassass Fire Department in Virginia received almost $1.5 million for hiring purposes.
Fire departments that receive these grants must pledge to keep the newly hired fire fighters on for one year after the grant money runs out – a restriction that some critics say stops the most desperate programs from taking advantage of the grant.
“Our nation’s firefighters are called upon day after day to protect America’s citizens,” said Durbin in a press release. “As these brave men and women put themselves in harm’s way, we must ensure that they are equipped with the best resources possible to do their jobs well and that our fire departments have enough trained firefighters.”
Despite the support of Senator Durbin and others, many fire departments that depend on the federal government for assistance will be seeing a lot less of it in the near future.
A week after the first grant announcements, the program, like many at the Department of Homeland Security, saw many changes and restrictions as Republicans and Democrats tried to come to a budget compromise for the upcoming year.
While the original budget bill introduced by the House Republicans cut the SAFER program completely, an amendment offered by Congressman Bill Pascrell (D-NJ) reinstated the full $420 million. The amendment passed 318-113. But the waivers were increased from one year to five years, and according to an article by the International Association of Fire Fighters, these pledges or waivers stop the most desperate towns from applying, because unlike Park Ridge, they know they cannot afford to keep fire fighters employed without help.
The International Association of Fire Fighters said that they plan on pressuring their allies on Congress to remove these waivers until the grant money is released next year.
