Michael Gomes

New Bedford, like many old New England towns, has homes and other buildings with pitched or slanted roofs.

A day of reckoning is on the horizon as the clock ticks down on the federal grant funding a third of the fire department through fiscal year '15. New Bedford's Chief Financial Officer Ari Sky told the City Council during Monday's budget hearing that the Federal Emergency Management Agency will grant the city waivers to allow vacant positions due to retirements or fire fighters leaving to remain th