Somerton seeks pair of grants to boost firefighters, build park

SOMERTON — This city will seek a pair of grants to boost the number of its firefighters and to pay for work in a new park to be opened as part of Somerton’s 100th anniversary celebration.

One grant application will be submitted to the Federal Emergency Management Administration for funding over three years to pay for six additional positions to handle what Somerton Cocopah Fire Department Chief Paul De Anda says is a spike in emergency calls.

The city also will seek up to $300,000 from Arizona’s share of federal Community Development Block Grant funds to pay for bathrooms, a museum and cafeteria at Centennial Park, due to open in June.

The Somerton City Council recently voted to authorize the city to submit formal applications for both sets of funds.

The fire department will send off the application later this month for funding through FEMA’s Staffing for Adequate Fire & Emergency Response (SAFER) grants program.

De Anda says the number of emergency calls handled by SCFD jumped from 1,298 in 2001 to 2,574 last year, while the number of emergency personnel who fight fires and provide ambulance service has remained at 12 in the same period.

“My personnel are under an enormous amount of stress not being able to answer all the calls,” De Anda told the council. “It’s an emotional and professional stress, and we are trying to avoid that.”

The grant will provide the department with additional firefighters to staff ambulances and fire engines in each of three shifts.

Under the terms of the grant, the FEMA funding would provide for 75 percent of the funding for the salaries for the new positions, with SCFD picking up the remainder. The amount of the grant would be reduced each succeeding year, with the city paying for 75 percent of the cost of the positions in the third year.

Mayor Jose Yepez and City Councilman Miguel Villalpando raised questions as to how the department would assume the full cost of the positions after three years. De Anda said the additional firefighters would allow the department to answer more ambulance calls, in turn bringing in an additional $114,000 in annual revenues through that service.

The second application will be sent by May to the Arizona Department of Housing, which divides the state’s share of CBDG funding among local governments.

Yuma Valley Contractors currently is at work on Centennial Park, a palm tree-shaded park located at Somerton Avenue and George Street, at the base of the city’s long-standing water tower. The first-phase work is due to be completed in May, in time for the twoday celebration in early June of Somerton’s 100th anniversary as a city.

The new park will feature landscaped walkways, a performing arts amphitheater plus a splash fountain for children’s entertainment. The CDBG funds would go for second- and third-phase improvements.