LINCOLN PARK – Mayor Maureen Tobin announced during the Sept. 28 city council meeting that the city had received a $2.4 million SAFER grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
SAFER, Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response, is a federal program managed by FEMA that provides direct funding to local fire departments to hire more frontline firefighters, which improves community and firefighter safety. It also helps reduce emergency response time by filling critical staff shortages.
The mayor said Fire Chief Mike Prinz worked diligently to obtain the grant.
“This will give us the ability to hire up to 10 firefighters,” Tobin said. “They will be hired over the next three years.”
She said the grant funding will help make residents and businesses safer.
“It will relieve a lot of overtime and increase fire personnel on all shifts,” Tobin said.