On Sept. 8, Congressman Chris Smith (NJ-04) met with representatives of the City of Trenton firefighters to discuss a federal grant program in the hopes of averting the laying off of 55 firefighters of its force of 227 in January 2013.

    Congressman Smith, a long-time member of the Congressional Fire Services Caucus, assisted then-Fire Chief John Gribbin in 2011, to help Trenton gain a similar grant of $13,685,436 through the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Assistance to Firefighters Grants (AFG) Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER).
      
     After meeting with Special Operations Chief Gribbin and other city firefighters in September 2010, Smith sent a letter to FEMA citing Trenton's budgetary woes and public safety issues. In December 2010, Smith helped obtain a waiver for the City after it inadvertently became ineligible for the grant when it postponed planned layoffs. Working with Assistant Administrator of FEMA Elizabeth Harmon and other FEMA officials, Smith explained that the loss of an expected 61 firefighters in 2011 would be detrimental to fire service in the densely populated city that is the capital of the Garden State. After a few snags, the grant was approved in 2011, saving the 61 positions for two years.

    Today, the department is seeking another grant to save the jobs of existing 55 firefighters, and hire nine others to replace retiring firefighters. Since the mid-1990s, 70 firefighter positions have been cut in Trenton.

    Smith sent a letter to Assistant Administrator Harman this week detailing the struggling city's dire need for the funding. Click here to read the letter.

    SAFER grants provide assistance to fire departments to increase the number of frontline firefighters.  The goal is for fire departments to increase their staffing and deployment capabilities and help provide communities with adequate protection from fire and fire-related hazards.  The SAFER program supports several critical activities, such as the rehiring of laid off firefighters, the retention of firefighters facing layoffs, the hiring of new firefighters, and recruitment and retention of volunteer firefighters.  Grants are used to pay the salaries and benefits of firefighters hired with grant funds over the two-year award performance period. It is administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in cooperation with the U.S. Fire Administration.