Wellfleet Fire Awarded SAFER Grant

WELLFLEET – The Wellfleet Fire Department is pleased to announce that it has been awarded a Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grant in the amount of $292,300 from the Department of Homeland Security/Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for the hiring of two new firefighter positions. The SAFER grant is intended top help local fire departments improve their staffing and deployment capabilities in order for them to respond to emergencies more effectively. The SAFER grant is awarded for a period of three years and will pay for 75% of the salary and benefits in the first and second years of the grant, and 35% of these costs in the third year

Wellfleet Fire Chief Richard J. Pauley Jr. was informed of the grant award by Senator Edward Markey’s office on September 10th with the official award taking place on September 13th, 2019. Chief Pauley stated “We are very pleased to have been selected for this grant. The SAFER grant program is highly competitive with only about 300 grant applications awarded annually out of 5,000 or more applications or requests.”

Further, according to Pauley, these two new firefighter positions are desperately needed as the Fire Department’s call volume and complexity of workload increases. Funding for the two new positions had previously been approved at the May 2019 Annual Town Meeting, but now with this grant, the positions will be partially funded through FEMA for the three years. Pauley also stated “the award of this grant will allow us to greatly enhance the quality of the Department’s capabilities with respect to fire and emergency services, while at the same time offsetting the costs to citizens and property owners in the Town.”

Rich Pauley

Chief Richard J. Pauley, Jr.
Wellfleet Fire Department
10 Lawrence Road
Wellfleet, Massachusetts 02667

Telephone (508)349-3754
Fax (508)349-0318
e-mail: rich.pauley@wellfleet-ma.gov