By Dan Murphy
Last month, the City of Yonkers and the Yonkers Fire Department received good news, when U.S. Senators from NY Charles Schumer and Kristin Gillibrand announced an $11.5 Million federal grant which will fully fund 30 Yonkers firefighters for the next three years.
Specifically, the Senators explained, Yonkers Fire Department will fill 20 currently vacant positions and staff an additional 10 positions left open due to long term medical leave. This federal funding will help to relieve some of the financial stress that Yonkers has experienced due to additional overtime costs resulting from staffing shortages, vacant positions, and long term medical leaves.
A futher analysis of the grant shows that Yonkers, in receiving $11.5 Million received as much or more in Federal funds than other, bigger cities like
New Orleans and San Fransciso. First let me say that after covering Yonkers for more than 20 years, and having witnesses the difficulties that the City has had in obtaining its fair share of funding, it is good to report that this time around, Yonkers is at the top of the list of city’s who received federal funds.
How did it all happen. We recently spoke to Yonkers Firefigher and former Local 628 President Barry McGoey, who was able to craft a grant ap application that caught the attention of FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security.
“Originally, the grant was for a 75% match in the cost of the 30 firefighters. But we contacted our representatives in Washington, (Senators Schumer, Gillibrand and Congressman Eliot Engel), and they were able to have those
restrictions listed. FEMA made it 100% with no cost sharing coming from the City or the taxpayers,” said McGoey.
McGoey and the City then drafted the grant based on a successful grant filed by the City of Buffalo. “We tried to justiy not hiring new firefighters but use the funding to replace open positions that became vacant to retirements and long term injuries, and our award was granbted. I spent a week to prepare it and submit it but it was worth it.”
“Once we had the grant submitted, it took a tremendours amount of lobbying to FEMA. We pointed out all of the significant risks, and all of our challenges and high hazards in Yonkers. And while every city has suffered through COVID, we pointed out that our infection rate was greater than in New York City,” said McGoey.
The $11.5 Million grant was the largest grant awarded and usually reserved for larger cities like Pittsburgh and Phoenix. That’s one of the reasons why Senator’s Schumer and Gillibrand called it a “massive grant.”
“In the end all of our efforts paid off. This pays the total cost of 30 Yonkers Firefighters for the next three years, including salary, pension and health benefits,” said McGoey who added that a new class of firefighters is already at the acaemdy.
It is also interesting to note that the grant was approved by the Trump adminstration, who at time has ben at odds with New York.
Congratulations to the YFD and thanks to Barry McGoey for the hard work, and knowledge to complete a sucessful, and yes, “massive grant. “
