Mt. Prospect takes grant, new firefighters will be hired

Now that Mount Prospect Fire Chief John Malcolm has accepted a $1.3 million grant from the Department of Homeland Security to restore staffing reduced in 2010 following the recession, he is moving ahead with hiring.

The grant will pay the salaries and benefits for six firefighters, and put the engine at Station 13 back into service. If the hires are veterans, the grant could extend an additional year for each one. Two are veterans, Malcolm said.

Reflecting on the cuts made in the wake of the recession, Trustee Paul Hoefert acknowledged they had to make hard decisions.

"To a person at that time, on the sitting board, it was said that when we could those would be the first staff positions that we would want to get back in place," he said. And this SAFER (Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response) grant is helping us to do that."