By Joanne Degnan, Staff Writer
ROBBINSVILLE The township has secured a two-year $700,604 federal grant to hire four firefighters and Mayor Dave Fried says Trenton firefighters who recently received layoff notices from the city will have first priority for the Robbinsville jobs.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency notified Robbinsville on Dec. 24 that its application for the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response grant, more commonly known by its acronym SAFER, had been approved. The $700,604 Robbinsville award is one of the largest in the nation so far.
Mayor Fried, who initially expressed concerns last week that accepting the grant may pose an obstacle to meeting the provisions of the state’s new 2 percent municipal cap, said Tuesday that the state has assured him that is not the case.
”We will accept the money,” Mayor Fried said.
Department of Community Affairs spokeswoman Lisa Ryan said Monday the cap applies only to increases in the tax levy the amount collected in property taxes not revenue procured through grants. Since FEMA, not local property taxpayers, pays the firemen’s salaries for the next two years, the new hires do not affect Robbinsville’s ability to meet the 2 percent cap at least not right away.
Mayor Fried said Robbinsville could have a budget problem in the third year when the grant runs out and the township, if it wants to keep the new firefighters, has to pick up the cost of their salaries and still meet the 2 percent municipal cap.
”If I’m lucky, I’ll figure out a way to keep them, or apply for another grant,” Mayor Fried said.
The mayor said Robbinsville’s first priority is hiring the two members of Trenton’s Rescue 1 who received layoff notices Dec. 16 after they returned from a mutual aid call in Robbinsville where they put on wetsuits and dove into the icy Town Center lake to remove a trapped motorist from a sunken car. The driver, an elderly Hamilton man who had suffered an apparent stroke before losing control of his vehicle, did not survive and was pronounced dead at a local hospital.
Hiring priority would next go to any other Trenton firefighter and then any laid-off firefighter from Mercer County, Mayor Fried said. Fire Director John Archer said Monday the state maintains a list of laid-off firefighters that Robbinsville could use to go outside the county if necessary to fill the positions.
”It’s to the town’s benefit to hire laid-off firemen,” Mr. Archer said. “There is no additional training cost incurred because all the guys will be tried and true.”
By hiring laid-off firefighters, the township also avoids having to comply with a costly SAFER grant provision that requires municipalities who hire first-time paid firefighters to maintain the new positions for at least three years, even though the grant runs out in two years, Mr. Archer said. Under the terms of the grant, if Robbinsville hires laid-off firefighters, instead of new ones, there is no requirement to keep them on the payroll once the grant money is gone, he said.
The mayor said last week that Robbinsville firefighters who lost their jobs when the department was downsized in recent years have since found positions elsewhere, which is why he would be taking laid-off firemen from Trenton first.
The Robbinsville fire department now has eight active volunteers and 14 paid firefighters, Mr. Archer said. The department also has two paid administrative positions not regularly assigned to firefighting duties, he said.
The SAFER grant is designed to increase the fire department’s staffing levels so there are four paid firefighters on the engine responding to fires, instead of three, said Brendan O’Donnell, the president of Local 3786 of the International Association of Fire Fighters, which represents the career firemen in Robbinsville.
”Study after study has demonstrated that staffing four firefighters to a piece of apparatus dramatically improves the efficiency of fire suppression while simultaneously improving safety for firefighters,” Mr. O’Donnell said.
Mayor Fried credited Capt. Daniel Schaffener for writing the successful grant application for Robbinsville.
”The department and our grant writer, Capt. Schaffener, has been very successful with grants over the past few years,” agreed Mr. O’Donnell.
The Township Council would have to adopt a resolution that accepts the federal SAFER grant before any hiring could take place.

