FlintTalk.com Forum Index > Political Talk Topic: 2009 SAFER Grants Program

Author    Post   00SL2 F L I N T O I D Anyone else curious about first you see it, then you don't? Won't see straight talk or details from the mayor or city administrator; pray the city council members will seek out the necessary information on their own. 2009 SAFER Awards City of Flint Fire Department Program: Hiring Federal Share: $6,766,350.00 Award Date: 04/09/10 http://www.firegrantsupport.com/content/html/safer/Awards09.aspx 2009 SAFER Grants Program Guidance - 344K http://www.firegrantsupport.com/docs/2009SAFERguidance.pdf Supplemental Announcement re: Waiver Authority - 108K http://www.firegrantsupport.com/docs/SAFER_Waiver.pdf 2009 SAFER Frequently Asked Questions http://www.firegrantsupport.com/content/html/safer/FAQs09.aspx Long, long list of FAQs and Answers, including: What is the purpose of SAFER? The SAFER (Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response) grants program was created to provide funding directly to fire departments and volunteer firefighter interest organizations to help them increase the number of trained, frontline firefighters available in their communities. The goal of SAFER is to enhance the local fire department's ability to comply with staffing, response, and operational standards established by NFPA and OSHA (NFPA 1710 and/or NFPA 1720 and OSHA 1910.134). See page 5 of the 2009 SAFER Program Guidance or www.nfpa.org/SAFERActGrant for more details. Specifically, SAFER funds should assist local fire departments with increasing their staffing and deployment capabilities to respond to emergencies whenever they may occur. As a result of the enhanced staffing, response times should be sufficiently reduced with an appropriate number of personnel assembled at the incident scene. Also, the enhanced staffing should provide all front-line/first-due apparatus of SAFER grantees have a minimum of four trained personnel to meet the OSHA standards referenced above. Ultimately, a faster, safer, and more efficient incident scene will be established and communities will have more adequate protection from fire and fire-related hazards. If selected for a SAFER award, grantees will be required to adhere to several terms and conditions of the award. Are there any funding limits for SAFER? Prior years' grant opportunities included a salary/benefit limit per firefighter ($100,000 adjusted for inflation). The 2009 funding opportunity does not have any limitations on salaries and benefits to be paid to firefighters. The only limit is the costs charged to the grant must be actual costs incurred. What kinds of activities are eligible for funding in SAFER? 1. Hiring of Firefighters Activity. The goal of the Hiring of Firefighters Activity is to award grants directly to volunteer, combination, and career fire departments to help them increase the number of frontline, active firefighters. The goal is to assure departments have adequate personnel to respond and safely perform at incident scenes, providing protection from fire and fire-related hazards for their communities. This activity provides 2-year grants to assist fire departments by paying the salaries of newly hired firefighters or to rehire recently laid-off firefighters. Any hired firefighters must be in addition to the authorized and/or funded firefighter positions the department had at the time of application. SAFER grantees who are using SAFER funding to hire new firefighters must commit to retaining the SAFER-funded firefighters for one full year after the two-year period of performance. There is NO retention commitment for grantees who are rehiring previously laid-off firefighters. 2. Recruitment and Retention of Volunteer Firefighters Activity. The goal of this activity is to create a net increase in the number of trained, certified, and competent firefighters capable of safely responding to emergencies likely to occur within the fire department's geographic response area. The primary focus is the recruitment and retention of volunteer firefighters who are involved with, or trained in, the operations of firefighting and emergency response. Volunteer, paid-on-call, and combination fire departments as well as local and statewide volunteer firefighter interest organizations are eligible to receive grants in this activity. While many different types of recruitment and retention activities may be eligible for funding, it is important to link the Recruitment and Retention Activity being requested to an identified recruitment and retention issue or problem within the applicant's department. With proper justification, applications for assistance in the Recruitment and Retention of Volunteer Firefighters could include activities requiring as many as four years to complete. There is no local match requirement for this activity and no maximum federal share limit. I know I can only submit one application in the Hiring Activity. Can I request funding to hire new firefighters and rehire laid-off firefighters in the same application? No. The 2009 SAFER Program Guidance (page eighteen) does not permit applicants to request funding for both the rehiring laid-off firefighters and the hiring new firefighters in the same application. An applicant having circumstances requiring both rehiring laid-off firefighters and hiring new firefighters should think about how they can best utilize the SAFER grant opportunity to build their personnel base, e.g., do they want to (a) replace the laid-off firefighters as rehires; (b) hire as new the laid-off firefighters plus the new firefighters; or (c) apply for the rehires under the 2009 application period, and then apply for the new hires separately under the FY 2010 application period. The 2009 SAFER Program Guidance states grantees cannot layoff any firefighters during the two-year Period of Performance. What if I lose positions to retirement or other attrition? Do I have to fill those vacancies? The 2009 SAFER Program Guidance requires all grantees awarded in the Hiring Activity to maintain their staffing at the level that existed at the time of application, in addition to the SAFER-funded new or rehire positions. If a SAFER grantee loses any firefighters for any reason (such as attrition or termination) during the 2-year Period of Performance, they must fill the position(s) or lose funding for the position(s) until the vacancy or vacancies are filled. Failure on the grantee's part to adjust payment requests to reflect vacancies or staffing adjustments would be considered in default. Grantees who default on the grant not only must forfeit all remaining federal funds, but also may be required to return all federal funds disbursed to date under the grant. Mon Apr 12, 2010 11:38 pm  Ryan Eashoo F L I N T O I D Wait a minute all that info is incorrect! TEAM WALLING got the grant! _________________ Flint Michigan Resident, Tax Payer, Flint Nutt - Local REALTOR - Activist. www.FlintTown.com Tue Apr 13, 2010 9:50 pm  untanglingwebs El Supremo Peggy Agar FLINT (WJRT) -- (04/19/10)--Flint firefighters are at their breaking point after two injuries this weekend alone. The announcement hasn't been made, but it looks like the laid-off firefighters could be called back to work before July -- maybe as early as next month. Even that may be too long a wait for an exhausted department. A warehouse fire is just one of the fires this weekend that used every single firefighter on duty. This weekend alone, the staff-stretched department fought 15 fires. There have now been more than 107 fires in the past month, an astronomical amount when you consider during the same month last year a larger staff battled just 37. Going home from a recent shift, it hit Raul Garcia just how exhausted he is. "I caught the light at Leaf and Dort and before I knew it, I fell asleep. Someone started honking and I woke up," he said. That kind of thing has never happened to Garcia in 14 and half years on the Flint Fire Department. But then again, he and his crews have never had to cover more than 100 fires in a month. "They are exhausted and mistakes are starting to be made," Garcia said. "We had an injury on Friday morning and one yesterday." After getting a federal grant to rehire 39 firefighters it was discovered the city couldn't get the firefighters in place until July. But the city did have discussions with FEMA and Dr. Ed Montgomery from the Obama administration last Thursday. It looks like they'll make an exception and at least some of the laid-off firefighters could be back on the job as early as next month. Almost all of those 39 positions will be filled with laid-off workers -- not new hires. As far as the firefighters are concerned, a month is still a long way away, but it's much better than July, they say. (Copyright ©2010 WJRT-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.) 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