The third or fourth time was the charm, as the Statesboro Fire Department’s application succeeded this year and the Federal Emergency Management Agency has awarded the department a $2.1 million SAFER grant to hire 12 new firefighters.

Back in 2020, the department applied for one of the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response grants with a plan to add 22 firefighters. That application was turned down. So SFD and city staff members, who thought that asking for so many new personnel at once might have been a turnoff, downsized their next application to call for adding 12 firefighters.

As of 2021-2022, that approach still didn’t win a grant in the highly competitive funding process. But Statesboro City Council approved locally funding nine new firefighter positions in the city’s fiscal year 2023 budget, in effect since last July 1.

Then the latest SAFER application paid off, as Statesboro Fire Chief Tim Grams announced Thursday after hearing from FEMA. The amount of the award to the nearest dollar is $2,108,938, meant to cover 100% of the salaries and benefits of the 12 firefighters for three years.

“Twelve is certainly going to make a substantial  impact and give us  those resources that  will be extremely beneficial  in delivering fire services,” Grams told the Statesboro Herald. “This will give us  enough personnel to where we will have 20 on each of the three shifts and ultimately raise the number of firefighters on each apparatus at any given time.”

3 shifts, 4 trucks

From its two stations, the all-professional department operates four companies of firefighters, one for each of the three regular fire engines plus a “tower company” for the big truck with the aerial tower and bucket. Each requires three alternating shifts, on duty for 24 hours and then off for 48.

“Where that 12 came from is it gives us four additional folks on each of the shifts, spread out over those four companies that we run, and it just puts us in a much better position as this community grows – and you know, we’re experiencing a ton of growth – to meet the needs of that growth,” Grams said.

With the nine locally funded positions in the current year’s budget, the Statesboro Fire Department had grown to 59 total authorized jobs in its workforce, of which 57 are for Georgia Firefighter Standards and Training Council certified personnel. If all vacancies were filled, 48 of those would be front-line firefighters who staff the trucks and respond to calls.

Current vacancies

But the department remains seven firefighters short of that currently funded number, even when five recruits now in training receive their certification. They are trained in-house by instructors within the department.

“We’re actually getting close to finishing up a recruit school, so it won’t be very long,” Grams said. “We have the intentions of opening up and starting another application period within the next few weeks, to try to get another batch in here, get them trained and get them on the floor.”

Up to 60 front-line

Assuming that Statesboro City Council, which authorized applying for the grant, now formally accepts it, the 48 front-line firefighter positions will expand to 60. But to get there, the department will need to recruit and retain 19 more firefighters than it has, both certified or in training, as of this week.

“Obviously one of the top priorities for the department right now is recruitment and hiring and filling these vacancies with the best possible candidates,” Grams said.

This remains a challenge, with competition from other fire departments and other lines of work, he acknowledges. City Council in December approved a $3,000 raise in annual pay for Statesboro’s police and firefighters. Those currently employed began to receive the added cash in January, but the city did not formally increase the SFD’s starting pay.

“We try to focus on those things outside of a paycheck,” Grams said. “We have a good retirement plan, we have decent medical benefits, and there’s a lot of other benefits the city has worked to pull in and gain the interest in folks in the community in a rewarding career.”

What’s covered

After being turned down for past SAFER grants, Statesboro has been awarded a proportionally more generous one than it applied for three years ago.

In 2020, the application seeking 22 firefighters was for a phased grant, which would have paid 75% of the firefighters’ salaries and benefits the first two years and 35% the third year.

But in 2021 the grant program was changed to cover 100% of salaries and benefits for three years. That remains the case in 2023.

So if the council approves receipt of the grant, the city won’t need to pick up the salaries and benefits of any firefighters hired under this program until the three years have passed.

But the grant does not cover other costs, such as the new firefighters’ uniforms, turnout gear and training, so the city will incur those expenses as personnel are hired.

The city now has about 180 days to accept the grant, inform FEMA and begin recruiting firefighters, after which the clock begins ticking on the three years to use the funding.