Ill. fire department gets funding to hire firefighters

By Tara García Mathewson
The Chicago Daily Herald

ELGIN, Ill. — The Elgin Fire Department will soon see almost $330,000 in federal grant money to hire two new firefighters and pay their salaries for two years.

The department is one of 81 throughout the country that have been awarded funding so far by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, a division of the Department of Homeland Security, for the 2010 fiscal year. Award recipients will continue to be funded until about $420 million is distributed.

The Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response program grants funds forhiring or recruitment of firefighters to increase the number of responders available in communities.

In Elgin's case, the money to pay the firefighters will go toward replacing two out of four people who have retired in the last couple years, according to Elgin Fire Chief John Fahy.

"These people would have been budgeted anyway," Fahy said. "This will help take some of the pressure off the general fund."

All four new hires will start academy training in March, assuming the city council votes to accept the grant money at its March 9 meeting.

Elgin Fire Department Lieutenant and City Councilman Richard Dunne helped prepare the city's grant application. He said the money is more of a budget benefit than a change in the way the fire department operates.

"It's not going to change our manning and it's not going to put more firemen on the street," Dunne said. "But it will be an economic benefit to the city."

Elgin's grant amount, $327,557, falls relatively low in the recipient lineup. The San Jose, Calif., Fire Department will get almost $15 million this year.

Elgin has applied for similar grants before, but this is the first year the city has been awarded SAFER funds.

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