Maloney, right, tells firefighters the $900,000 from Washington will enable the department
to retain 10 paid firefighters
NEWBURGH – Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney (D, NY18) visited the City of Newburgh Fire Department Friday to announce that a portion of the federal SAFER Grant funds, awarded to the department two years ago that were being disputed by FEMA, have finally been secured. That means there will be no layoffs of firefighters.
The city’s fire department received $2.4 million through the grant program which is provided to fire departments in need of personnel funding. However, a dispute occurred between the city and the federal government. That’s when the congressman said his office stepped in. He got involved to resolve a dispute between the city and the federal government about $900,000 of the funding that was going to become unavailable.
“We have resolved that dispute; that money will come to the city. It will allow the city to continue to employ these firefighters through 2016, at least the first quarter of 2016, when we will be able, I believe, to continue the federal funding as part of a new grant cycle that will renew the initial grant, which means, that by bridging this gap and resolving this dispute, we should be able to fund these positions, essentially, indefinitely but, at least, for the next several years,” the Congressman said.
Maloney commented that due to the nature of the grant itself, they were expecting a situation like the dispute to occur since the time the department was awarded the grant.
If the SAFER funding had not been restored, 10 full-time firefighters the city had hired as a result of being awarded the grant, would have been laid off.
Chief Michael Vatter said during the dispute there was a period of uncertainty where they were planning for the situation of losing the funding for sure. With the added stressor of the holidays coming up, he said tensions were high and morale was low within the department, making it very apparent to him, as the chief, how dire the situation was for those whose jobs were in jeopardy.
“When you’re sitting there helping somebody do some paperwork and they have their two-year-old daughter with them it really comes home on what that means, that paycheck and that job that they love,” said Vatter. “They don’t want to go anyplace else, they want to stay here; they want to be firefighters in Newburgh and it makes you want to redouble your efforts to help them.”
The funding has now been secured for the department until April/May of 2016, allowing Newburgh to have 13-14 firefighters working on every shift which, Chief Vatter said, allows them to arrive at almost every call with “boots on the doorstep” within three minutes. Vatter said the department is already working on perfecting their application for the next grant round and are being very proactive regarding the continued employment of their firefighters who are necessary to keeping the city safe.
