Butler City Council is moving forward with plans to hire additional full-time firefighters by Feb. 2 to take advantage of a federal grant that covers part of their salaries for three years.

Council at Tuesday's meeting authorized city officials to take the necessary steps to hire an unspecified number of firefighters by the Feb. 2 deadline to have their salaries subsidized through the $622,500 Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response grant the city received last year.

The grant allows the city to hire up to four firefighters and receive funding to cover 75 percent of their salaries for the first two years and 35 percent in the third year.

Fire Chief Christopher Switala said the city currently has 16 full-time firefighters and four part-timers. Two of the part-timers are on the list for promotion to full-time.

He said the city advertised a test for additional part-time positions on Jan. 31, but didn't know if that testing date could also be used to administer the test for full-timers or if a separate test would have to be scheduled.

Mayor Ben Smith and council left it up to Switala and other city officials to determine how to conduct testing for the full-time positions.

There were 15 full-timers when the city applied for the grant, but a contract between the city and the International Association of Firefighters Local 114 requires at least 16 full-timers, officials said.

The grant was intended to increase the number of full-time firefighters to 20, but it requires the city to have 19, Switala said.

He said the grant funding kicks in Feb. 2 regardless of whether the city hires anyone, so the city will begin losing some of the money if no one is hired by then.

The entire grant would be forfeited if no one is hired at all, he said.

Officials said anyone hired under the grant would become contracted employees and would not become part of the union, unless they are hired to fill a vacancy left by union employees in the future. The city is not required to keep the employees hired under the grant after the grant expires, but the city can apply for another grant to keep them.

n In other business, council agreed to study the dilapidated swimming pool building in Memorial Park for demolition.

Council hired Core Compliance Inc. of Cranberry Township for $3,775 to conduct an environmental survey to look for asbestos in the building.

Councilman Jeff Smith said the building is in such a state of disrepair that it is unsafe for employees to enter.

“The roof is unstable. The building is not salvageable,” Smith said.

Testing for asbestos is required before the building can be demolished, said John Evans, building code official.

The pool was closed in 2002 or 2003, city officials said.

n Council also granted permission to the Marriott Springhill Suites in the Centre City development downtown to install a logo sign on a city light pole near the hotel.