On Friday September 21st, Fire Chief Nalborczyk received notification from SAFER (Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response) Grant management staff that the department had been awarded a $375,000.00 Recruitment and Retention of Volunteer Firefighters Application Award. This is a huge step in forward inertia to maintain and increase our volunteer staffing presence in our corporation. The grant focuses on both the recruitment of new members to join our membership as well as the retention of current and future recruits within our department. The goal is to recruit and retain a total of sixty-five (65) new volunteers over a period of four (4) years, beginning in December of 2018. Within the $375,000.00 there is funding to support the following critical objectives of the Recruitment and Retention Program:

Recruitment and Retention Coordinator / Program Manager Position - Salary and Benefits

Funding to Establish and Market a Recruitment and Retention Program "Brand" Specific to NMDVFC

Full Set of PPE for each New Recruit Completing Basic Firefighting Training

Nominal Stipend Pay-Per-Call Program for Members with Basic Firefighting Training

Complete Station Duty Uniform for each New Recruit Completing Basic Minimum Training to Ride Apparatus

Tuition Assistance for Higher Education - Tuition Cost Assistance in Exchange for Service Program

The senior leadership of the department will be extremely busy in laying and establishing ground work for the program as well as posting a job announcement for the position created in the grant. We are extremely excited to see the new operational staffing levels that will be reached in the next four (4) years in working with this SAFER Grant.