Fire department receives grant to recruit new members

The Princeton Fire Department received a $361,500 grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security earlier this month, partly in light of the uncertain future of the University’s volunteer firefighter program.

The University’s program, set to expire in June, was established in 2009 as a one-year pilot program that allows University employees — many of whom work in the Facilities and Public Safety departments — to join the all-volunteer company as either full members or associates. The 90-person Princeton Fire Department includes around 30 University volunteers.

The associate status, which was established as part of the pilot program, allows University employees to only respond to calls during working hours, while full members are required to respond to calls 24 hours per day. The associate schedule is especially helpful at providing volunteers during the hours when full members are in school or at work, Borough Director of Emergency Services Mark Freda explained in an email.

“Clearly there is a cost to the University to allow employees to leave work for calls and training, but one of the primary reasons to start the program was to provide this type of help,” Freda said. “All indications are that the program is a success and continuing would seem to make a lot of sense.”

The University also provides $100,000 every year to fund Freda’s position with the Borough.

Though the University has yet to decide on the future of the program, the fire department will be partly appropriating the federal grant, which was secured from the Federal Emergency Management Agency as part of its Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response initiative, to ensure against the potential end of the program.

The grant, which will be distributed over a four-year period, will help pay for Freda’s salary and outreach initiatives, such as improving the sleeping bunks at the Witherspoon Street firehouse, an annual mailing to residents to ask for volunteers, online recruiting, a recruitment trailer at the Princeton Garden Theatre and other marketing costs for signs and ads.

However, University spokeswoman Emily Aronson said in an email that the University is interested in continuing the volunteer program and cautioned against taking the grant as a sign of the program’s demise.

“The program is a great example of the University and town working together to provide benefits to the greater Princeton community,” she said. “Like any pilot program, it will be reviewed by the University and the Princeton Fire Department to determine how we can best continue to work together.”

Michael Christensen, an engineer at the University’s utility plant and a University volunteer at the fire department, said in an email that he “sincerely” hoped the program would continue and eventually be made permanent.

“I knew from the very first meeting, when the pilot program started, that this was going to be a very worthwhile and special program,” he explained. “We have a good group of people and a deep camaraderie among the participants … Personally, it is very rewarding.”