Thanks to a $1,011,000 FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Act) grant, the Hillsboro Fire Protection District will be able to hire six new firefighters, adding to its current full-time roster of nine firefighters.
The fire district will receive the FY2019 SAFER (Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response) grant money in installments of $337,000 per year over three years, so after that, the three jobs would have to be eliminated unless the district comes up with other funding to cover their pay and benefits, Fire Chief Brian Gaudet said.
Not that he’s complaining.
Gaudet said he was pleasantly surprised when FEMA notified him the district had been awarded the grant.
“We applied in late 2019 for a grant from FEMA,” Gaudet said. “We were notified we got the grant in late September. We had no idea it was going to come through and we just got an email one day saying we were chosen for the grant.