Ebb and Flow
Don Mobley was one of the featured speakers at last week’s Illinois Fire Service Home Day. A former chief in Illinois, Mobley now is the Region 5 fire program specialist for the Department of Homeland Security/Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Mobley spoke to congressional staffers, manufacturers and fire-service personnel about the Assistance to Firefighters Grants and newly created Fire Station Construction Grant Program, which is part of the 2009 American Recovery & Reinvestment Act. FEMA’s Grant Programs Directorate will administer the program in coordination with the U.S. Fire Administration.
According to Mobley, $210 million is available for the one-time FSC grant offering. The application period is open now through July 10. As with all agency grants, FEMA offers a Guidance and Application Kit. FEMA anticipates between 5,000 and 10,000 grant applications for approximately 100 awards. There also will be a maximum of $5 million per project and no more than $15 million to one community.
The competitive FSC grant program will provide financial assistance to build new or modify existing fire stations to improve response capabilities. Priority will be given to replacement of unsafe or uninhabitable buildings, and applicants may be required to provide documentation regarding the nature of the health or safety deficiencies.
Priority also will be given to projects that expand fire-protection coverage in compliance with NFPA 1710 or 1720 or those that modify or expand existing structures to provide sleeping quarters for full-time occupancy.
Additional consideration will be given to projects designed and built to meet current ICC codes and NFPA standards, which include sprinklers, exhaust extraction and detection systems. The lowest priority will be for projects to replace or expand habitable structures that are cramped or configured inefficiently.
The FSC grants don’t require a cost-share, and preference will be given to projects that can be started almost immediately. Such projects will have land and utilities already available and have approved zoning and — to the maximum extent — green initiatives.
Details and an applicant tutorial can be found at firegrantsupport.com
While we’re on the subject of federal grant dollars, the House Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee approved a draft 2010 Homeland Security Appropriations bill that would fund the 2010 FIRE and SAFER grant programs and the USFA.
The subcommittee reduced FIRE Grants by $380 million (33%) from the FY 2009 level of $565 million. SAFER Grants, however, were doubled from $210 million to $420 million for FY 2010. This is a reversal from the past eight years, where FIRE Grants were more heavily funded than SAFER grants. But as the fire service continues faces layoffs and station closures, perhaps supporting SAFER is the brotherly thing to do.
I’ve always cautioned that relying on federal dollars to fund fire departments is dangerous, and that couldn’t be truer than it is right now. The application requests have always far exceeded the dollars available. The funds could flow in a different direction or stop all together in another fiscal year.
