GIRARD — Girard Mayor James Melfi said Tuesday he is turning down a $281,247 Federal Emergency Management Agency grant that may have been used to increase staffing for the Girard Fire Department.

In October, the city also rejected the grant because of matching costs but was granted a 30-day extension to accept the grant. That 30 days ends today.

The Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grant was awarded to the fire department to hire three additional full-time firefighters / paramedics. The city would pay $38,006 the first and second year and then $98,816 the third year.

Fire officials have said they already would be paying at least $225,000 this year for overtime costs, and even with that, the department often doesn’t meet minimum safety standards set by the National Fire Protection Association for staffing levels, which states four personnel must be on-duty at all times.

The department has 10 full-time firefighters and two captains.