The city’s fire department will be increasing its ranks, thanks to federal grant money.

Six firefighter/paramedics positions are being added to Mason Fire Department, which now has 28 full-time firefighting positions and six additional uniformed personnel, including the chief and deputy chiefs, according to City Manager Eric Hansen.

Those on the rolls as part-time firefighters number about 24, he said.

Mason City Council voted Monday to authorize the addition of the six full-time positions.

“What we’re doing is recruiting,” Hansen said. “We’re advertising and folks are applying to be a full-time firefighter and then we’ll select them.”

That process, which started a couple of months ago, is “on the fast track” and should be completed by mid-March with staffers in place by early April, Hansen said.

The Staffing Adequate Fire Emergency Response — or SAFER — grant has a value of $1.1 million at its maximum over the course of 24 months from when people are hired, he said.

“That’s part of why the urgency to get these positions in place by early April,” Hansen said. “In order to meet the grant stipulations, we have to have them in place.”

The city applied for the SAFER grant early last year, according to Fire Chief John Moore.

“We saw it as a way to provide a more stable staffing,” Moore said. “We depend about 50-50 right now on part time employees (and full time employees), and part time employees come and go a lot faster looking for full-time jobs. We’re constantly in the hiring and training process.”

That affects the ability for the department to achieve unity when it comes to training and familiarization with responsibilities on an emergency scene, he said.

About seven years ago, following an outside analysis that offered ways to improve the department’s service, a goal was set to improve the proportion of full-time coverage, Hansen said.

“The benefits of full-time coverage is both the consistency of who is on staff at any given time and the reliability that someone will be filling that slot,” he said.

Right now, the department must deal with about a 25 percent turnover in part-time staffers, Moore said.

“That’s a challenge when you’re looking for good, quality people,” he said. “We only hire about 10 percent of the people who apply. We’re admittedly more selective than others in that.”

Congress created the SAFER grant program to help address the significant staffing, equipment, training and health and safety needs of fire departments, according to the International Association of Fire Fighters.

The grant provides funding to assist in paying the costs associated with hiring personnel to maintain safe staffing levels.