Today, Congressman John Rutherford and Fire Chief Keith Powers joined me at Fire Station 18 on Myrtle Ave. to announce a multi-million-dollar federal grant to improve public safety in Jacksonville.
Once again, the City of Jacksonville was awarded a Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response grant—also called the SAFER grant—from the Federal Emergency Response Administration (FEMA) to increase our ranks of first responders and enhance public safety in our community.
The City will receive $14,240,160, more than any other Florida municipality this grant cycle, and above the $5.5 million we were awarded last September. These dollars will hire 60 new firefighters for our community, covering salary and benefits.
As Secretary Chad Wolf announced in his visit back in May, these SAFER Grants are no longer subject to certain cost share, salary cap, supplanting, and minimum budget restrictions. This enables us to free up dollars for other priorities, without impacting our public safety investments.
I am grateful to President Donald Trump, the Department of Homeland Security, FEMA, Congressman Rutherford, and our federal delegation for their support of Jacksonville. From helping us kick off COVID testing to federal funding from the CARES Act ($159M), the federal government has been an amazing partner to Jacksonville throughout this pandemic, and beyond.
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