The Taunton Fire Department will fill three vacancies by hiring firefighters who were recently laid off in Fall River.
Nuno Medeiros, Paul Medeiros and Theodore Lima will officially be hired next month if they successfully complete in Taunton's hiring practice, City Clerk Rose Marie Blackwell told The Herald News.
Taunton received a SAFER grant in 2012 to maintain staffing at 120 personnel, and due to recent retirements, the city would drop below that number. If that happened, they could be penalized and lose the SAFER funding.
The move to hire three experienced firefighters to eliminate three vacancies created by recent retirements is in line with conditions of a two-year, $1.35 million federal SAFER grant that went into effect in December, 2012.
Officials say that 15 firefighters who lost their jobs in Fall River were on the Taunton civil service list.
Councilman Donald Cleary was against hiring the new firefighters because he is concerned if the city can't afford to hire anymore.
The decision to hire Lima drew some debate since he does not have EMT training.
“More than 90 percent of the calls they go out to are medical calls, and I just think we need to do our best to serve the needs of the public (in that respect),” Councilwoman Sherry Costa Hanlon said.
