Nine firefighters were sworn in Tuesday as Manteca delivered on a key Measure Q sales tax promise.

It marked the single largest hiring of fulltime fire personnel in the city and the largest hiring of frontline public safety personnel in a given year since 2007.

And as a side note, the nine new firefighters include the first fulltime woman firefighter in the department’s history.

The addition of a sixth company is expected to have a positive impact on response times citywide.

The department had been scrambling to provide coverage to the rapidly growing southwest Manteca where more than 3,000 homes are outside the targeted five minute response time based on dispatch to arrival on scene.

It has created a situation where the Union Road station engine company — the closest to southwest Manteca — was not only handling the largest call volume, but due to the number of southwest calls, was relying more and more other engine companies in their primary coverage area.

Councilman Charlie Halford, who represents southwest Manteca, noted it was the first step of the city’s efforts to enhance fire response times.

The second will be the building of the city’s sixth fire station in the area that will break ground in the next year or so.

It is expected to be part of a 17-year bond that will help cover the cost of the $92 million police station breaking ground this summer on South Main Street.

The ability to bond was made possible by passage of Measure Q, the three-quarter cent 20-year sales tax.

Nine firefighters will now be assigned to a second company at the Union Road station.

That station was built in 2002 with room for enough apparatus for an engine company and a ladder company as well as to house six firefighters.

Each engine company has three firefighters on each shift with nine overall assigned to an engine for 24/7 coverage.

When the new station opens, an engine company will be shifted to that location.

“It is all Measure Q,” noted City Manager Toni Lungren.

City staff also kept its promise to find other funds to augment the Measure Q sales tax.

Staff applied for — and the city received — a $2,692,300 federal grant in October to help with initial salary costs for the additional firefighters.

The Staffing for Adequate Fire & Emergency Response (SAFER) matching grant offsets part of the salary and benefit costs of nine firefighters over their first three years of employment.

The city without Measure Q would have struggled to bring on the nine firefighters needed to staff a sixth fire station being built in southwest Manteca. And it would have been done in a manner that likely filled two or so new positions a year instead of all at once.

Staff pursuing the SAFER grant was keeping with the promise made to voters they would seek other funding sources to stretch the impact of the three-quarter cent 20-year sales tax.

It also underscores a misconception that many have regarding federal and state grants that are available to aid local governments.

In order to beat out other cities, there is more to it than just documenting a pressing need.

Manteca, as an example, was able to demonstrate escalating calls for service as well as having more than 3,000 households outside of a targeted 5-minute response time for the best outcome in fires and medical emergencies.

That, however, is not enough.

Local jurisdictions — especially when adding public safety personnel is involved — have to match the grant to some degree.

And in the case of the SAFER grant, they have to continue to employ the firefighters after the three-year period has lapsed.

 Other steps the city has taken — including requiring new projects up for council approval starting in 2022 or needing elected officials’ support for significant changes with maps in place to be part of a community facilities district to help augment public safety staffing — will put new revenue streams in place.

In doing so, it will help replace Measure Q funding when the tax measure ends in 2046.

The nine additional firefighters effectively increases the number of the department’s fire suppression personnel by 20 percent.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com