By Mike Crowley
The Meadville Tribune, Pa.
MEADVILLE, Pa. — A federal grant of more than $1 million will enable Meadville to expand the size of its fire department staff by 33 percent, city officials announced Friday.
The grant will fund salaries and related costs for four full-time firefighters over the course of three years, giving Meadville Central Fire Department what Chief Evan Kardosh called “a vital boost.”
“It enhances our ability to respond more effectively to emergencies and strengthens our overall capacity to safeguard the residents of Meadville,” he said of the grant. “This funding is a critical step in securing the well-being of our community.”
The Federal Emergency Management Agency will provide $1.03 million through its Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) program. Meadville Central Fire Department is one of just two departments in Pennsylvania to receive a SAFER grant for firefighter hiring in this cycle, according to the city’s press release. Millcreek Township Fire Department received $5.4 million to hire 15 full-time firefighters. Eleven other departments in Pennsylvania received SAFER grants aimed at supporting volunteer recruitment and retention efforts, and a total of 191 grants were awarded nationwide.
“This funding reinforces our commitment to ensuring the safety of Meadville’s residents,” said City Manager Maryann Menanno. “It allows us to better address the growing needs of our community while maintaining the highest standards of fire protection and emergency response.”
Kardosh expected the funding to be available in March and said the department would work on preparations to so new staff members can be added as soon as possible. That means a new hiring list will have to be created as the number of firefighters to be hired will exceed those available on the current list.
Looking further into the future, Kardosh said the department’s goal is to retain the new hires after the federal funding is exhausted.
“We anticipate that we’ll be able to keep them on staff based on the success of the EMS department,” he said. “This also allows us to evaluate during that time what our future staff needs will be without having to invest additional funds into it.”
Meadville Central added ambulances and paramedics last year. The department currently has 12 full-time firefighters, not including Kardosh, and three part-timers as well as five full-time paramedics and two part-timers.
Additional full-time firefighters on staff will enable the department to more consistently achieve its goal of maintaining a four-person complement for each shift, according to Kardosh, and will mitigate the extent to which paramedics serve on fire crews.
“Currently our staffing, most days, dictates that we’re running with three on the fire truck,” the chief said. On some occasions, he explained, one of two on-duty paramedics may be moved from ambulance duty to a firefighter crew.
In 2017, city budget cuts resulted in the minimum fire department crew being reduced from four to three.
Seven years later, short staffing has become a reality among nearly all fire departments — one that can be exacerbated as departments like Meadville Central more and more frequently assume added responsibilities, according to Kardosh.
“As we continue to take on additional duties that we can do for the community, such as community risk reduction and public outreach as well as mobile integrated health,” he said, “there’s a lot of aspects of that that require additional time and personnel, so having more people will only help those situations.”
Such concerns reinforce the impact of receiving the grant.
“The weight lifted off my shoulders,” Kardosh said of learning of the award. “Knowing that we can exponentially increase our services we provide with just those few additional personnel — it truly is a blessing.”
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