The Common Council voted Wednesday to ask the Fire Board to allow the city to hire new firefighters who are emergency medical technicians, not more highly trained paramedics.
For many years, Lockport has hired only paramedics to join the Fire Department. However, after the current crop of nine candidates for the department went through agility tests, only one paramedic was left on the eligible list.
The matter is urgent because earlier this year, the city was awarded an $848,368 federal grant to pay the full salaries and benefits for four new firefighters for the next two years. But the city needs to act on hiring by early February, or it could forfeit the money.