Flanagan’s bid for more SAFER firefighting funds looks bleak

Herald News Photo | Dave Souza

Jo C. Goode
Herald News Staff Reporter
Posted Mar. 7, 2014

FALL RIVER — Mayor Will Flanagan’s social media campaign to lobby the city’s congressional delegation in an attempt to increase the city’s SAFER grant funding for firefighting jobs appears to be futile.

Flanagan, however, said he doesn’t see it that way and that this must be a communitywide effort, including the federal delegation, whom he said supports him in gaining more funding.

“Make no mistake, this is an uphill battle,” Flanagan said.

Flanagan is seeking to amend a SAFER grant application to request money for 50 additional firefighters, up from the original request of 16 additional firefighters.

Last week, Flanagan announced plans to cut the fire department by 60 firefighters, reducing staff size from 213 to 153, after promising the firefighters union he would fund a complement of 200 in the fiscal 2015 budget.

There may be a problem, according to members of the federal delegation.

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