By Joanne Degnan, Managing Editor
ROBBINSVILLE A career fire captain whose expertise in the federal grant application process has helped the Division of Fire secure more than $1 million in funding in recent years is set to take over next week as deputy fire chief.
Capt. Daniel Schaffener, a 14-year career firefighter, will be officially sworn in as the deputy chief of the 18-man paid department at the Sept. 13 Township Council meeting.
Mayor Dave Fried on Monday had high praise for Capt. Schaffener, calling him a “real leader who goes above and beyond every day.”
”It’s not just the big things like the grants that he does so well, it’s all the little things too,” the mayor said, noting that Capt. Schaffener runs a tight ship.
There is no paid fire chief in Robbinsville. The deputy fire chief will report directly to Police Chief Marty Masseroni, who is also the township’s fire director.
”I am looking forward to leading a great fire department and am thankful for the confidence that township officials have shown in me,” Capt. Schaffener said Friday.
Two new firefighters, both of whom are replacing personnel who recently left the department, will also be sworn in at the Sept. 13 council meeting. The names of the new hires, selected after a rigorous testing process from a pool of 44 applicants, have not yet been released.
A federal grant that Robbinsville received in 2011 to hire more firefighters requires the town to maintain minimum staffing levels to ensure there are always four paid firefighters on an engine responding to fires, instead of three. Four firefighters per engine makes fire suppression safer and more efficient, studies have shown.
The $700,604 federal SAFER grant (an acronym that stands for Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response) that Robbinsville received was one of the largest in the nation at the time. Capt. Schaffener wrote the successful SAFER grant application, as well as numerous others over the past 10 years that have brought in $1.15 million in federal grants for personnel, equipment, vehicles and fire prevention.
Capt. Schaffener has a master’s degree in Public Safety Management from St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia and earned his bachelor’s degree in Fire Science and Public Safety Administration from Holy Family University in Philadelphia. He has been a career firefighter in Robbinsville since 1998 and was promoted to captain in May 2004.
Mayor Fried said Capt. Schaffener current earns a base salary of $89,989, before overtime. As deputy chief, he will earn $105,000 but will not be eligible for overtime, the mayor said.
Police Chief Marty Masseroni will continue to oversee the Division of Fire as its fire director. Chief Masseroni was given a $20,000 raise earlier this summer for taking on the responsibilities of fire director, after former Fire Director John Archer retired from his full-time $73,225-a-year job.
There has not been a paid fire chief in Robbinsville since 2008 when former Fire Chief Kevin Brink was laid off from his $99,000-a-year post.
After Chief Brink left, the police chief was temporarily put in charge of the fire department until the township hired Mr. Archer in 2009 for the newly created position of fire director.
Mr. Archer’s appointment was strongly criticized by the Robbinsville firefighters union at the time.

