SAFER GRANT

            On August 27, 2007 at a meeting of the South Burlington City Council a presentation was made by Fire Chief Douglas Brent and members of the South Burlington Career Firefighters Assoc. in regards to staffing levels at the fire department. The purpose of this meeting was to seek the permission of the City Council for the fire department to apply for a federal grant program called the SAFER program. SAFER is an acronym for Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response.  In the discussion following the presentation the City Council felt this was an opportunity that the city should take advantage of and unanimously authorized Chief Brent to submit a grant for six additional firefighters.

            The SAFER grant is a cost sharing program that pays a decreasing portion of a firefighters salary and benefits over a 5 year period. As the federal share decreases, the local share increases, until the 5^th year when the community assumes the full cost.  It is designed to assist a community to increase the number of on-duty firefighters while easing the financial impact to the city budget.  There are 3 shifts at the fire department and if the grant is OK’d this would increase staffing on Engine 1 (Dorset Street) from 2 firefighters to 3 firefighters per shift.  It would also increase the staffing on Engine 2 (Shelburne Road) from 2 firefighters to 3 firefighters per shift.

            The growth of our Fire Department has not kept pace with the growth of our City.   South Burlington never had its own Fire Department until 1970.  In that year the population was 10,032 and our new department responded to 190 emergency calls.  Currently the population is 17,243 and in the year just ended we responded to 2,523 emergency calls which makes us the 2^nd busiest department in the state.  We have since added a second station and transport EMS (ambulance).

            The decision was made to put the request on the ballot in May.  This is based around a 10 year plan to fund the positions developed by City Manager Chuck Hafter.  This plan would use a combination of general tax revenue and sales tax revenue to pay the City’s portion.  By funding the city share this way the cost would be spread over 10 years instead of 5 and would gradually build up the City’s property tax expense while equally reducing the sales tax appropriation.  

 By voting to accept this grant program staffing at the fire department could be increased by 6 Firefighter/EMT’s while leveraging $682,550 of federal funding.  For further information contact Fire Chief Douglas Brent at 846-4110 or City Manager Chuck Hafter at 846-4100.