It’s been a week of high’s and lows for city firefighters.
 
On Wednesday night the Altoona City Council voted to pass the ACT 47 Recovery Plan which will lead to budget cuts in the Fire department.
 
Thursday brought much better news as the Department of Homeland Security awarded over $209,000 in grants to the department for operations and safety.

City Fire officials say that the money will enable the department to replace aging equipment.

The union representing the firefighters says the grant will help the department short term but doesn’t impact the long term situation with the city coping with distressed status.