The Boerne Fire Department stands to gain six new firefighters early in 2025, thanks to a near-$2 million federal grant received late last month. The department expects to use the additional manpower to staff its second fire station, due to open in March 2026.
Kristy Stark, Boerne assistant city manager, told City Council about the SAFER grant during its Oct. 8 meeting.
“We just received notice on Sept. 23 we received a SAFER grant, a grant from FEMA — Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response,” Stark said. “This will fund six firefighters for three years.”
SAFER, she said, allows cities to be able to expand their public safety staffing through their fire departments.
“After three years, it allows you enough time to be able to staff those and fund those through your general fund” as permanent positions, Stark said.
The grant will be a tremendous boost for our fire department,” Boerne Fire Chief Manny Casarez said.
“The timing of everything was perfect. We are about a year and a half out from having our grand opening for fire station no. 2,” Casarez said, “(With the grant), we’ve got three years’ worth of firefighters’ salaries covered. It’s a game changer when you think about the amount of staffing we have currently.”
The SAFER grant, totaling $1,958,373, will be phased in over a three-year period starting in March 2025.
“FEMA gives us 180 days to get the process going and start recruiting,” he said. “From March next year through March 2028, we will have three years’ worth of funding, which is huge as we prepare to staff two fire stations.”
The grant, he said, is for firefighter positions only. The city will have lieutenant positions to fill when fire station no. 2 starts operations, but those positions are not a part of the grant.
“The gaps that exist currently need to be filled to get us more aligned with (National Fire Protection Association) standards that pertain to deploying resources at a structure fire,” the chief said. “This helps us be more efficient on emergencies as well as to juggle overlapping emergencies more efficiently.”
The additional staff will allow BFD to improve its response times and better serve the community, he added.
Stark said the grant is one of several obtained through the city’s partnership with The Normandy Group, which provides guidance to navigate various federal funding opportunities and allows the city to leverage its limited resources.
“These grants take a lot of time to apply for, research, and make sure you have a legitimate and viable proposal to submit,” she said.
Boerne first contracted with Normandy Group in April 2023 and has since been the recipient of 11 grants, the FEMA SAFER grant among them.
“This is what the Normandy grant does. We’ve had $3.6 million in grant funding we’ve received since April 2023, and a lot of that is through the relationship we have with these folks,” Stark said.
Council was being asked to extend the Normandy Group contract for a three-year period, worth $90,000 per year plus a 3% growth rate annually. The three-year pact was unanimously approved.
Councilman Ty Wolosin said Boerne is the only city of its size receiving grants such as the SAFER award and the recent $600,000 bridge investment grant, to analyze the condition of bridges throughout the city.
“The two funds we got from the Department of Transportation, we're the only one (getting that) because we have people out there lobbying for us to make this happen, and good staff making sure we’re taking advantage of these opportunities,” Wolosin said. “That speaks volumes.
“For me this is a no-brainer. It’s a great opportunity for the community and the return on investment is huge,” he added.
“There was a lot of excitement when we found out our application made it through, and we were awarded what we asked for,” Casarez said. “It was a great feeling for everybody here.”
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