By Ryan Hutton
The Berkshire Eagle
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All Rights Reserved
CHESHIRE, Mass. — Opinions are still divided on how Cheshire and Savoy should spend a $666,000 federal grant designed primarily for the recruitment and retention of new volunteer firefighters that was awarded to the towns’ fire departments last month.
The Cheshire Selectmen has expressed interest in trying to “flip” the grant to fund vehicles and equipment needs of the department. Town Administrator Mark Webber has contacted the town’s Homeland Security contact to see if adjusting the grant is possible.
“The result we’re hoping for would involve flipping the grant so that we had the option of getting equipment and also getting some money for recruitment of new volunteers,” Selectmen Chairwoman Carol Francesconi said last week. “We’d have the best of both worlds if that happened.”
The Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grant was awarded by the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to Cheshire, with Savoy attached via an agreement between the fire chiefs. The grant came after several failed grant applications to get a badly needed $175,000 rescue vehicle. The grant has been a point of contention for the town because of disagreements on the fire department’s needs versus its wants.
Capt. Corey McGrath of the Savoy Fire Department said that while the town has many needs, he doubts the possibility of flipping the grant. He said he and Fire Chief Kevin Krutiak are planning for the department’s future with the grant it was awarded.
“I don’t know how the SAFER grant can be flipped to an equipment grant,” said McGrath, who also serves on the Cheshire department. “I don’t know how that’s even possible. The SAFER grant is not equipment funding. As far as my concern and Chief Krutiak’s, we applied for a certain grant, and that’s the grant we are pursuing.”
Getting on ‘the same page’
McGrath said would like to see everybody involved “on the same page” and would hope the SAFER grant was brought to fruition as it was written. He said the departments are pursuing other sources of funding for equipment, adding that the departments were “always looking for grants.”
“We have a low operating budget, so any equipment would be a benefit to us,” McGrath said. “All of our trucks are older, but that’s not what we set out to get, though they are both of great need.”
Savoy has 13 volunteer firefighters compared to Cheshire’s 29. McGrath said the grant would enable the departments to recruit between 24 and 30 new men over a course of four years. He said he was not sure what the division of manpower would be, but noted that both towns need as many firefighters as possible because they are mutual aid towns.
“Any number would be great and benefit both towns. If the need arose, the towns would be working together anyway,” he said. “The town greatly needs apparatus, too, but they are two totally different grants.”
Francesconi said using the grant for equipment needs would be preferable, but the town will gladly use the funds for recruitment if all else fails. The town has six months to decide to accept or reject the money, but Francesconi said the only two options being explored are exchanging the grant for one that funds equipment or accepting the money for recruitment and retention.
“We’re expecting an answer (from Homeland Security) by the end of this week on whether or not we’d be able to do this,” she said.
Before anything happens with the money, she said, the next course of action will be jointly discussed with both fire chiefs and the Savoy Selectmen to ensure any decision would be based upon everybody’s input on what’s best.
Four other Massachusetts communities have received SAFER grants this year -- Concord, Sudbury, Littleton and Fall River. Cheshire received the most money and Fall River, with a population of 92,000, the second most, at $621,000. Fall River is seeking to recruit six new firefighters for its 240-person professional department. The only city to get more than Cheshire was Lowell, which received $800,000 in 2005. Lowell has a professional department of 210 firefighters and used the money to hire eight new ones.
“This is a great opportunity, and I hope we can grasp it and run with it,” McGrath said. “It worked for other communities and I’d like to see it work for ours, too.”