The city of Springfield received a grant of more than $1.3 million that will allow for the addition of 13 firefighters, City Manager Greg Burris said today at the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce’s Good Morning, Springfield! breakfast.
Burris said the grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency will fund the positions for two years, after which the city will pick up the cost.
Springfield Fire Chief David Hall said the grant will go a long way toward filling open positions in his department.
“We currently have 19 vacancies. We’ll have 20 in June, so this will help offset some of those,” he said.
The Fire Department’s vacancies came from attrition, he said, as a result of the city’s ongoing hiring freeze, enacted to help the city deal with revenue shortfalls in light of decreased tax revenues and increased payments to bring the Police & Fire Pension Fund up to required funding levels.
Burris told breakfast attendees that there are 194 job vacancies in the city. Still, he noted that the grant will help city leaders honor their commitment to bring the Police and Fire departments to full staffing levels.
Hall said a new recruit class for 10 of the 13 grant-funded firefighters will begin June 21. The remaining three – hopefully along with seven additional hires for the department’s open slots – will be in a second recruit class, slated to start in September.
Burris also shared some positive news regarding the city’s Insurance Services Office rating, which factors in to many insurance companies’ rates for business and homeowners’ insurance.
The city learned in late 2009 that it faced a ratings drop to Class 3 from Class 2 unless it made improvements, such as adding personnel or upgrading or rebuilding the city’s burn building. which Hall said is used for firefighter training and practice.
“It’s specially designed so that we can reburn over and over inside the building without affecting the structure,” Hall said. “Over the years, it’s just fallen into disrepair, particularly the land around it … and we’ve just not had the ability to make the needed repairs and improvements out there.”
Community support, including donated building materials and labor, is bringing the building, originally built in 1997, back into service, with a ribbon-cutting planned for April 8, Hall said.[[In-content Ad]]
