Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Ni on October 28, 2008 at 8:13am

All I can say about Funding is that Our City pays for our Fuel, and that's about it.

FEMA and their glorious insight again for the fifth year in a row has given us a Big Fat Goose Egg. We have been requesting funds fora new Brush truck/Runabout/MVC response vehicle and up to date Turnout gear. Sadly, most of our equipment is from the Back Draft The Movie days.

I believe our coverage (I could be off so give our take some here) aprox 50 sq miles, with a pop i want to say arouind 50k (extremely rural)

Permalink Reply by Jenny Holderby on October 28, 2008 at 4:08pm

Our area is 36 sq miles. We have an ISO rating of 6. The last census said about 10,000, I think it is actually more than that now. We have a tax levy in the township that is 1/2 a mil I think. Our budget is about the same depending on how much fund raising we do.

Permalink Reply by Jenny Holderby on October 28, 2008 at 4:40pm

Ni, I wouldn't call 1000 people per square mile rural. My township has a pop of 130-150 psm depending on where you are. Some of it is pretty densley populated and about half of it is rural.

My department has been fornutate enough to receive 2 FEMA grants over the past few years. There is about 100x more requsts than there is funding. The evaluation process is pretty intense. Make sure ALL of the application is filled out & do a lot of narrative to explain your need. The evaluators pay more attention to the applications they can read & understand a lot faster than the ones they can't.

Go for the fire fighter health & safety to get your PPE up to par first. Do your research & find out WHAT you need & have a good idea how much it will cost so you can give them a realistic figure. If you ask for $15,000 for PPE for 20 ffs they know you didn't do much preparation. Same thing applies if you ask for $150,000.00 for gear. Do that with your truck as well. Explain how much the vehicle itself is going to cost & then add in the equipment you are going to need to put on it including your radios & such.

I live in Oh, there is a state surplus program to shuffle equipment. We were able to get a decent brush truck for $0. It didn't take much to referb. Also check into other places like your state Department of Natural Resources for grants.

Permalink Reply by Donald on October 28, 2008 at 9:43pm

Our department covers 174 square miles, has approximately 3500 residents. Budget is approx 26,000 +donations (typically 32,000 overall)


they have an iso rate of 7, and must keep two engines to maintain it. Their budget is less than 50,000. They clearly need it.........but some beaurocrat made of list of objectives.

Permalink Reply by Donald on October 28, 2008 at 9:47pm

Ni........our department has received 3 FEMA Grants......

Equipment, Tanker, SCBA

I wrote the grants without any grant writing experience.......the key........over 400 hours invested just to fill out the applications. Now I spend about 6 hours on an application because I have learned what FEMA wants. Did anyone on your department ask FEMA to explain the weak points in your application?

There are many many factors that affect your score. Money is not the greatest indicator.........

Permalink Reply by Jenny Holderby on October 29, 2008 at 12:50am

Objectives?