$3m grant for firefighters has strings

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) - A federal grant could put an extra 19 firefighters on Grand Rapids streets, but the city manager is not convinced they want to accept the money.

The check for nearly $3 million comes with a caveat: accept the money, and the city can't lay off any firefighters.

"One might ask, 'Well, if you're getting free firefighters, why would you want to lay them off?'" said City Manager Greg Sundstrom. "Well, our budget difficulties are not over."

He's been trying to re-invent city government to make it more efficient, and the question lingers if adding more firefighters in line with that philosophy.

"I don't know if it's an issue," he told 24 Hour News 8, "because the answer is you never have enough (firefighters.)"

But Joe Dubay with Grand Rapids Firefighters Local 366 is "worried that the people at City Hall are playing politics with the lives of citizens and firefighters."

Fighting fires, which often involves dressing in 80 pounds of equipment and moving 100-pound hose lines through buildings consumed by 1,000 degree flames, is difficult work that often needs more crew at the scene.

"It still comes down to you have to have personnel to show up to a fire, put boots on the ground to put the fire out," Dubay said. "We still put wet stuff on the red stuff. That's how fire goes out."

He thinks this is less of a philosophical difference in how to manage city government and more of a bargaining chip as the city and the firefighters negotiate a new union contract.

But Sundstrom said it's an attempt to weigh all the facts.

"If it's just a matter of finding ways to keep people employed at additional taxpayer expense, we can't do that. We can't afford that anymore."

Sundstrom will talk to his bosses on the City Commission before making a final decision.

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