Jamestown City Council voting session (March 27, 2023)
Jamestown City Council has tabled a resolution to hire eight firefighters using federal grant funds, citing the need for more discussion.
Finance Committee Chair and Council member at Large Kim Ecklund said while council had asked for more information from the administration since the beginning of March about the future financial impact, not all questions were answered, “So in the interest of doing it not the justice it deserves, we feel, through Finance Committee, and the rest of the Council agrees, that we’re going to table this and get those numbers in front of us. Get the correct information, the adequate information, in addition to bringing the information of the ambulance forward which is part of the numbers that were presented to us.”
Ecklund emphasized that Council is not anti-public safety, “And with ARPA and with last year’s budget, I just want it clear that roughly $2.1 million was given to the Jamestown Fire Department and $2.3 million to the Jamestown Police Department. That’s almost $5 million in ARPA funding and budget changes to help, clearly probably not enough as they will attest to, but to clearly try to show the support to help those departments.”
The City of Jamestown has received a three-year $1.8 million grant from the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) Grant Program to hire the firefighters.
City Council President Tony Dolce said the concern is having to lay off those firefighters when the grant ends, “And we want to make sure that the numbers add up and what are our changes of getting a renewal to that (grant), and with the second ambulance and increased EMS service, what would that cover at the end of this. So, again, we’re in the 180 day window (to hire). An extra month, we’re still in good shape to get those people going.”
Council is expected to revisit the hiring resolution at its work session on Monday, April 10.
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