The Greeneville Board of Mayor and Aldermen approved the resolution for the Greeneville Fire Department to apply for the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) Grant, offered by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Federal Emergency Management Agency for Fiscal Year 2022.
The $435,000 SAFER Grant would allow six more positions over a three-year period, if the fire department was selected. According to the First Responder Committee Report provided at yesterday’s meeting by the Fire Department, it shows additional staff is needed and this grant would permit the appropriate number firefighters to be on duty when having to control multiple accidents at a time. With the increase in population City Administrator Todd Smith said the fire department is doing more, taking a lot more calls, and is still usually the first to respond to the scene of an accident.
Fire Chief Alan Shipley stated the Department went up from 10 minutes to an hour for time spent on the scene of accidents and said often off duty firefighters have to be called in for assistance. The grant would be received June 2nd and there would be 180 days to hire from that point according to smith.
