By Noah Crenshaw | Daily Journal
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The Greenwood Fire Department welcomed six new probationary firefighters/EMTs during a city council meeting Monday night.
The new positions were added last month, following the Greenwood City Council’s passage of salary amendments for the fire department.
In May, the council heard two proposals to amend the city’s budget and add more than $226,000 to the fire department’s budget for the positions. The department typically receives funding for some new staff each year, however, as a precaution to protect the city from financial losses due to the coronavirus pandemic, Greenwood froze all department budgets.
Mayor Mark Myers said in January to find funds for both the fire and police departments, he said during a city council meeting May 17.
The additional firefighters would help the overall stability for the department’s long-term plan to hire more full-time firefighters each year, Fire Chief Darin Hoggatt said at the time.
Hoggatt has been trying to increase the department’s full-time staffing since he became chief in 2016. In 2018, he asked the city for nine additional full-time firefighters for 2019, but the city approved just three at the time.
In June, the council unanimously approved the amendments allowing for the hiring of six additional full-time firefighters.
Three other full-time firefighters, and four part-time firefighters were sworn in during the meeting, but they were entering already established positions that were left vacant due to firefighters leaving and retirements, Hoggatt said.
