$690,000 in federal aid for city fire department

The city fire department is getting almost $700,000 in federal aid to hire additional firefighters, U.S. Sens. Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand announced Wednesday.

The $690,390 outlay is from the Department of Homeland Security’s Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grant program, the New York Democrats said.

Kingston Mayor Steve Noble said the three-year grant will allow Kingston to hire four fulltime firefighters. He said the city will have to provide matching funds to the grant, which will be a small amount in the first two years and a larger amount in the third.

The total of the city’s match amount was not immediately available Wednesday.

Noble said the grant will allow Kingston to have an additional firefighter on duty during each of the fire department’s four shifts. That, in turn, will reduce the department’s reliance on overtime, he said.

The mayor said the city ultimately will save money due to the new hires and the department will be better equipped to respond to emergencies.

“The more people you have on shifts, the better,” Noble said.

He said the city will hire the new firefighters from a civil service list.

Kingston Fire Chief Mark Brown said the city “just got word” Wednesday afternoon about the grant funding and that he hopes to hire the new firefighters as soon as possible.

The Kingston Fire Department has 49 career members. Brown said 45 of those are on-duty personnel and the grant will raise that number to 49.

In a letter supporting the grant application, Schumer said the extra staffing means city firefighters “will be working in a safer environment” and that there will be less of a burden on volunteer firefighters in surrounding communities who sometimes are called to Kingston fires.