Templeton is a town that understands the value of minutes.
When a fire tore through the iconic Templeton Feed and Grain building on July 4, firefighters arrived within three minutes, containing a blaze in the heart of downtown. For the past three years, a federal grant helped ensure that kind of rapid, experienced response was always available.
That funding is now ending. A Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grant expires in mid-February, taking with it the federal dollars that have paid for two full-time fire engineer positions—firefighters trained to suppress fires, drive and operate engines, manage pumps, and keep operations running smoothly during emergencies.
“Maintaining current three-person staffing model without the SAFER grant is just not financially sustainable,” Fire Chief Tom Peterson said.
On Jan. 20, the Templeton Community Services District board voted to absorb that reality. By adopting what staff called “Option 1,” the board chose to fund those full-time engineer positions locally, even though doing so will eliminate the department’s reserve firefighter program and create a projected $65,000 deficit this fiscal year.
“We are not asking for additional money from the community at this time,” Peterson said at the meeting. “While additional funding could resolve our problems, … it’s not what’s being proposed. This discussion is about choosing the safest and most sustainable staffing model within our existing financial realities.”
Under the SAFER grant, which began in February 2023, Templeton Fire maintained three firefighters on duty at all times. Peterson said that level of staffing created safer, more effective, and more predictable responses than what existed before.
But when the district learned in December that it would not receive a new SAFER grant—after changes to the federal program required local matching funds and no longer fully covered personnel costs—the numbers quickly became difficult to ignore.
Staff estimated that maintaining current staffing levels without grant funding would result in a projected $291,000 deficit in the 2026-27 fiscal year, a shortfall board members and staff agreed was unsustainable.
Prior to late 2020, Templeton Fire and Emergency Services was not fully staffed 24 hours a day. That changed after voters approved Measure A in August 2019, allowing the district to implement round-the-clock coverage beginning the following October.
The original Measure A staffing model relied heavily on reserve firefighters. During the day, three personnel were available to respond immediately, but staffing dropped to two people overnight. While that approach allowed the district to stretch limited funds, it also created operational gaps and inconsistencies from shift to shift.
“It may not seem like a big impact to the general public,” Peterson said of losing a third firefighter on an engine, “but if you take one person off of a fire engine, the amount of work that can be produced with that third person is mind-boggling at times.”
The SAFER grant temporarily closed those gaps by funding two full-time engineers, allowing the department to staff a captain, an engineer, and a firefighter on every shift, 24 hours a day. When the board accepted the grant in 2022, it did so with the understanding that staffing would revert once the funding ended. That reality arrived this winter.
In the weeks leading up to the Jan. 20 vote, the district’s Fire and Emergency Management Committee reviewed three options: maintaining current staffing, reverting to the Measure A model, or adopting Option 1.
Keeping current staffing was dismissed early.
“Maintaining current three-person staffing model without the SAFER grant is just not financially sustainable,” Peterson said.
Reverting to the Measure A model would have required eliminating two full-time engineer positions and resuming reliance on reserve firefighters, resulting in a projected $47,000 deficit in 2026-27.
Option 1, which the board ultimately approved, restructures the department around a smaller but fully professional workforce. The model includes one full-time fire chief, three full-time captains, and three full-time engineers, with two experienced personnel on duty at all times. While the projected deficit would be about $18,000 higher than the Measure A model, Peterson said the trade-off is greater safety, cohesion, and predictability.
“Under Measure A, captains must act as both incident commander and apparatus operators, which present safety concerns,” he explained. “That’s a lot to put on our captains.”
A staff report called the role overlap “a significant safety concern” especially when they are only working alongside one reserve firefighter who may not have adequate training.
Peterson echoed that assessment to New Times, explaining that under the Measure A model, captains often shoulder too many responsibilities at once.
“Essentially, that captain would be operating that fire almost by themselves,” he said.
The department once relied heavily on reserve firefighters, many of whom were early in their careers and rotated frequently.
“When we bring in the reserves, we bring guys in at times that have no experience at all,” Peterson said. “That leaves my captain and that brand new person in the evenings instead of an experienced person.”
Under Option 1, Peterson said, consistent full-time staffing improves crew cohesion and on-scene effectiveness. Each of Templeton’s current fire captains told district officials they preferred Option 1.
Eliminating the reserve firefighter program affects roughly eight individuals who relied on Templeton Fire for training, experience, and supplemental income.
“Anytime you’re having to let anybody go, that’s not an easy decision,” Peterson said. “These young people are at the beginning of their career, and this is going to impact them directly.”
Zach Jackson, current president of Atascadero Professional Firefighters Association, expressed support for Option 1 on behalf of the 19 professional firefighters in Atascadero.
“Here in the county, we rely on a robust mutual aid system,” he said. “Having professional, trained firefighters is very important, not only for the community’s safety, but for our safety as firefighters. So, for that reason alone, we support Templeton and Option 1.”
The decision garnered support from the community with nine written comments all expressing support and six in-person public comments also expressing support.
The board’s Jan. 20 action directs staff to implement Option 1 immediately following the SAFER grant’s expiration on Feb. 18. ∆
Reach Staff Writer Chloë Hodge at chodge@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Feb 5-12, 2026.