BUCYRUS — In what would have been the last minute, a Staffing for Adequate Fire and EMS Response (SAFER) Grant was vetoed by Bucyrus Mayor Jeff Reser on Friday.

A resolution was approved during a special council meeting May 7 by Bucyrus City Council for the mayor to apply for the grant. Minutes before the original deadline approached to file for the grant, Reser officially vetoed the legislation.

The deadline for the grant has been extended by the state until May 27 at 5 p.m.

According to Bucyrus City Council President Kurt Fankhauser, he believes it is the only piece of legislation Reser has vetoed in the five years he has been mayor, and plans are in the works for the council to vote on legislation to override the mayor’s veto at the council meeting scheduled for May 19 at 7 p.m. via online conferencing.

During the council’s health and safety committee meeting May 7, there was a lot of back and forth between the committee members and city officials, including city auditor Joyce Schifer.

“If we are approved for the grant and accept it, we will be locked in to keeping the number of employees on the fire department as we had when we applied,” Schifer said. “We do not know how the year will be with city finances due to the pandemic. We have never dealt with anything like this before so there are many unknowns.”

Reser pointed out in a letter released Friday regarding the veto that during the last economic downturn, firefighters and police officers had to be laid off to balance the city’s budget with the decrease in revenue and that it could happen again due to the pandemic.

In his own letter released to the public Friday, Fankhauser said that in the early morning hours of on Friday, he received notice that FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) that sponsors the grant had changed the grant to 100-percent funding for all three years of the grant, instead of two-thirds for the first two years and one-third of the last year of the grant.

“This grant will fully pay the salary six firefighters for three full years,” Fankhauser said. “The grant deadline was also extended another week to May 22. At the time of the mayor’s veto, he was aware of the grant deadline extension and also 100-percent funding change but chose to veto anyway.”

The public is invited to attend the meeting from a computer, tablet or smartphone at https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/752339901. It also may be accessed by dialing in using a phone at 1-571-317-3122 Access Code: 752-339-901.