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Government
$24.2M federal grant to hire 150 Detroit firefighters a 'godsend'
2013-11-30
[DETROITNEWS] O'Dell Tate has volunteered for the city's Angels' Night patrols for more than a decade and has watched as firefighters battle blazes that strain resources and put neighborhoods on edge.

Now, with a $24.2 million federal grant -- the largest ever awarded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to a fire department -- and two savvy grant writers, the city stands to hire 150 new firefighters.
That's $80,666 per new firefighter for two years, after which the city is on the hook. Unless those grant writers get busy again, in which it's Uncle Sugar paying out for salary and benefits pretty much forever. Which is how Detroit -- and Champ -- would prefer it...
"It couldn't come at a better time," Tate said. "We have wonderful firefighters here, but for a city bankrupt, increasingly impoverished, reliably Democrat, Detroit
... ruled by Democrats since 1962. A city whose Golden Age included the Purple Gang...
's size, to increase our numbers would be a great asset."

After losing out on millions in federal grants for years, the Fire Department turned to the Detroit Public Safety Foundation, a nonprofit foundation founded in 2011 to boost Detroit's waning public safety resources.

"The Fire Department is an area that has so many needs and they didn't have anybody that has focused on writing grants ... ," Catherine Govan, executive director of the foundation. "It just makes us feel that we're doing what we need to do to help the city."

Govan said the nonprofit dedicated two grant writers to look for any grant "we could possibly get."

The grant will fund new firefighters' salaries and benefits for two years.

The Fire Department had never secured a grant from FEMA's Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response Program, or SAFER, until 2011, when the foundation stepped in. Since then, the Fire Department captured a $22.5 million award in 2012, the largest SAFER grant awarded up to that point, that kept 108 firefighters from layoffs. In October of that year, the city laid off 26 firefighters, but they returned a month later under another SAFER grant of $5.6 million.

The latest grant is a "godsend," said Executive Fire Commissioner Don Austin, who credited the foundation with securing the grants that will boost staffing.
Posted by:Fred

#7  It was during the Clinton administration, 49P.
Posted by: Pappy   2013-11-30 22:15  

#6  I believe it was During Bush 2 they did the same thing with police officers across the country. What ended up happening was the cops were laid off and rehired on the program. Some cities did not hire a single additional cop. Lets see how many they really hire.
Posted by: 49 Pan   2013-11-30 19:42  

#5  Strange is it not, uncontrolled fire is actually the solution !
Posted by: Besoeker   2013-11-30 15:10  

#4  Union jobs. Which means union votes.
Posted by: SteveS   2013-11-30 14:04  

#3  Yes, soft money paying salaries will ensure secure jobs!
/sarc
Posted by: Alaska Paul    2013-11-30 13:22  

#2  Yep, typical Liberals, GOD(Obama) has sent them.
Posted by: Redneck Jim   2013-11-30 11:14  

#1  a welfare City, Black Democrat Politics über alles
Posted by: Frank G   2013-11-30 09:57  

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