Federal SAFER Grant Request Rejected by FEMA

Getting approval for a federal grant is never a sure thing, and the City of Sedalia found that out recently.

The Sedalia City Council had previously approved the hiring of six new firefighters for the Sedalia Fire Department, with the hopes of securing a $366,609 SAFER grant, after receiving a request for funding from SFD Fire Chief Matt Irwin as part of his strategic plan presented to Council in April.

A Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grant is a FEMA grant that provides funding to fire departments and volunteer firefighter organizations to help them increase or maintain the number of trained firefighters in their communities.

Irwin applied for the grant, but it was ultimately declined.

“Unfortunately, we didn’t score high enough to reach the funding level,” Irwin told Council, noting that “the way it works, we applied, got graded twice, and basically they (FEMA) award funding down until they run out.”

“We budgeted for six personnel. What we also did was budget for the revenue from the SAFER grant. That grant would have paid for those firefighters for the next three years. Unfortunately, we were not awarded that grant. But I still need six firefighters,” Chief Irwin told Council members.

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He noted that over the past 60 days, the new SFD Squad Truck has responded to 145 calls for service in the City. Another Squad Truck is coming soon.

Those calls account for nearly 25 percent of the total calls received at Central Fire Station, Irwin stated. “And that’s 145 calls that engines did not have to respond to.”

Chief Irwin said that he plans to have two Squad Trucks in service with the six new personnel very soon.

“What it boils down to is we didn’t get a SAFER grant, the feds don’t want to pay for it. We need to hire six people, so we need to figure out a long-term way to pay for them,” Irwin stated flatly.

Third Ward Councilman Bob Cross asked Chief Irwin if the SFD can apply for a SAFER grant next year.

“We can, the problem is, I needed six personnel a while back,” Irwin stated, adding that the window for next year’s application period will open in December or January, and it will not be known if the SAFER grant request is successful until next October.

No action by Council was necessary, as the expenditures were already appropriated, but now with no monetary support from the FEMA grant.