Facing the loss of an $800,000 federal SAFER grant, the Templeton Community Services District voted to keep two full-time fire engineers on staff

By Chloe Shrager
The Tribune

TEMPLETON, Calif. — As integral outside funding for the Templeton fire station runs out, the district committed to filling the fiscal gap for two specialized firefighters — but it will have to cut corners elsewhere to pay for the positions.

An $800,000 federal grant that has funded two full-time fire engineers for the past three years will run out in the middle of February, leaving Templeton Fire and Emergency Services understaffed.

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Fire engineers have specialized training to drive and operate the fire engine, particularly pumps, while also performing full firefighting duties and emergency medical services.

The Community Services District Board of Directors meeting room was packed full on Tuesday night as the directors considered alternative staffing options.

The original plan was that the two engineer positions would disappear after the grant funding ran out, leaving the fire department to rely on more reserve firefighters who receive less rigorous training — but it would’ve been too expensive to keep both.

Fire Chief Tom Peterson and the larger Templeton community instead asked for the Community Service District to fund the engineer roles at the expense of keeping the reserve units.

“Full-time engineers are not a luxury — they’re essential,” Phil Goldblum, president of the Templeton Firefighters Association, said during public comment. “They’re highly trained to operate large emergency vehicles, manage pumps and water supply. ... These skills require experience and consistency. They cannot be replaced quickly or learned on the fly.”

The decision came six months after Templeton’s historic Feed and Grain burned to the ground in the center of downtown, a fire that many fear could’ve spread to surrounding buildings had the fire department not responded in minutes.

Many comments from the public reflected the sentiment that had the fire department not been fully staffed with trained engineers on all shifts, the fire could’ve ended up much worse for the small downtown.

“I fully believe that the entire town could have burned down if it was not for the fact that we had full-time staff ready to respond quickly,” Templeton resident Susan Kocher wrote in an email to the board ahead of the meeting.

Ultimately, the board chose to fund two full-time engineer positions and remove the fire services’ reserve firefighters, putting the community service district in a $65,000 budget hole this fiscal year — which many agreed was a small price to pay for their safety. What were Templeton’s options?

In 2022, Templeton Fire and Emergency Services applied for and received a $798,576 Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response — or SAFER — grant from FEMA that paid for two additional full-time engineers for three years, from February 2023 to February 2026, on the stipulation that after the grant period ends, the fire department would revert to the previous staffing model and eliminate the additional full-time engineer positions.

The grant gave Templeton fire services enough funding to have a full-time captain, a full-time engineer and a part-time reserve firefighter on every shift, around the clock.

However, the SAFER grant will run out Feb. 17 . The district applied for another grant in July, but found out Templeton was denied in December.

Templeton was left with three options: to leave staffing levels as is, revert to the previous staffing model or adopt a new staffing model, all of which were costly.

Maintaining the current staffing model without the grant would lead to an annual deficit of about $291,000. The Fire and Emergency Management Committee ruled that option unsustainable at its Nov. 19 meeting.

“Maintaining current three person staffing model without the SAFER grant is just not financially sustainable,” Peterson said.

That left either reverting to the previous staffing model without the fire engineers — known as the Measure A model — or adopting a new model with the fire engineers — called Option 1. Neither model met the National Fire Protection Association 1710 staffing standards of at least three trained, full-time personnel on shift at any time.

Peterson, with the full support of the community, recommended Option 1.

Under Option 1, two experienced people would be on shift at any given time — one captain and one engineer — whereas under Measure A, more shifts would be fully covered, but by reserve firefighters who receive less training.

Although Measure A would’ve cost marginally less — putting Templeton in a $47,000 deficit compared to a $65,000 one — the model presented safety concerns that reverberated across the community.

Nine people wrote in ahead of the meeting by Jan. 15 to express their support for funding the two fire engineer positions proposed in Option 1, and six more spoke at the meeting.

Under Measure A, captains would have to act as both incident commander for less experienced firefighters while operating the engines, Peterson said.

“Essentially, that captain would be operating that fire almost by themselves,” Peterson said.

However, the recommended Option 1 effectively eliminates the reserve firefighter program.

“When I make this proposition to eliminate the reserve program, it’s not an easy one for me,” Peterson said at Tuesday night’s meeting. “These are all great people, and it makes it a very difficult option to have to select, but again, it’s one that I think is necessary.”

Ultimately, the district approved funding for one full-time fire chief, three full-time captains and three full-time engineers, which would put two people on every shift, every hour of the day.

The community applauded the decision — and the firefighters who showed up to support the motion — but the directors agreed this was only a Band-Aid on a bigger problem.

“This is only a short-term solution,” Director Debra Logan said. “We’ve got a longer term problem, in my opinion, and I think we’ve got to look at possibly ... what do we do with the fire department? How do we fund it and how do we staff it appropriately?”

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