NY Firefighter Layoffs amid Grant Uncertainty

July 31 -- NEWBURGH, NY -- Five firefighters have been laid off as Newburgh awaits the Federal Emergency Management Agency's decision on a third application to a grant program that allowed the city to hire 15 new firefighters in 2014 and retain a dozen of the new positions as the first grant ran out in 2016.

For months Newburgh's fire department has been bracing for layoffs once the city exhausted funding from FEMA's Emergency Staffing for Adequate Fire & Emergency Response program, from which Newburgh has received two grants totaling about $4.4 million to cover salaries and benefits for new hires.

A dozen firefighters were initially identified for layoffs scheduled for the end of this month.

Newburgh's Council voted to take on the costs for three firefighters, and three more found jobs with the Arlington Fire District. Another layoff was prevented when a veteran firefighter retired, said Brendan Hogan, president of Local 589 of the International Association of Fire Fighters.

Approval of Newburgh's current $1.5 million, three-year grant request would allow the city to rehire those laid off.

"Nobody wants to see these guys go," Hogan said. "Nobody feels good about it, but we're professionals and we continue to do our jobs. We do what has to be done when the bell rings."

The layoffs' roots go back to September 2013, when city and fire department officials announced that FEMA had approved a $2.4 million, two-year SAFER grant underwriting 15 new firefighters.

The extra manpower from the grant, which allowed the department to raise its personnel level from 55 to 70, led to a quicker and more forceful response in which fires have been extinguished before buildings are totally lost, acting Chief Terry Ahlers said in December.

The number of incidents in which the department had to call for additional manpower after the initial response fell from "20-plus incidents to less than 10 per year"; injuries due to short staffing were "pretty much eliminated"; and more fire safety violations were being caught because the department has devoted more men and time to inspections, Ahlers said.

The expectation was that Newburgh would be positioned financially to assume the costs of the extra firefighters by the time the grant ran out in 2016, but city officials said they were unable to absorb the new salaries and benefits.

"The folks at City Hall have had more than enough time to come up with some solutions to prevent these layoffs," Maloney said.

In July 2016, FEMA gave Newburgh a second grant for $2 million that would be used to prevent layoffs of a dozen firefighters.

Mayor Torrance Harvey said he had spoken with U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer's office about Newburgh's third grant application on Tuesday morning. On July 20 and July 27 FEMA announced the first new awards.

"We're hopeful that we will get the grant again," Harvey said.

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