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Grants that might be available for station construction
We are a very small(6 member) dept in south east Ks. We currently have no fire station, we had to demolish ours do to it being extremly unsafe. We are looking to build a 50x80 with 3 drive thru bays and an office space and training/meeting area. We are capable of doing the interior construction, to help reduce cost. The total project is going to run about 68,000. Like i said we are a small dept and we dont need anything fancy just functional..does anybody have any info on available grants
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Derek J Sinesi on
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Jason, just looked up your little town. Was going to ask if you had went to any businesses in your fire district and asked for donations? But i didn't find any. Problem is even if there where grants out there for a building; i'm not sure you would qualify with only six members. How many calls do you run a year? Let my know your run volume and i will check with some of my grant writer friends to see if there are any.
Next Question is with a population of almost 400. Why are there only 6 on your department?
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Permalink Reply by Jason Clatt on
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nobody wants to help..thats why we only have 6..nobody wants to train..nobody wants to attend our meetings.. we run maybe 7 structure fires and round 100-150 grass/brush fires. our buisnesses say thats what they pay taxes for. plus we are on automatic mutual aid with the other 5 towns in our county..we dont need anything fancy..even if we could apply for a kan-step style grant where the grantee supplies all the labor..any help would be great
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Permalink Reply by Andrew Richmond on
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Jason,
I know that several years ago the White City FD located between Junction City and Mcpherson received a grant which allowed them to purchase the material if they provided the labor.
Give them a call and ask them how they went about applying for it. Here's their contact info.
White City Fire Dept
124 Commercial Street
White City, KS
Phone: (785) 349-2228Let us know what you find out.
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Thanks bro will do
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I will make some calls for you.
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Permalink Reply by John Crabbe on
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our buisnesses say thats what they pay taxes for
For what? Sounds like they are paying most likely next to nothing and receiving next to nothing. a 6 member dept isn't going to do squat to save a business, nor even a home of one of the 400 in population. Problem is I would bet these same idiots would be screaming at how long it takes to get firefighters to the scene, let alone enough to even effectively mitigate an emergency.
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I know what you re meaning to say..but sir i take great offence to you saying that we cant do shit because we dont have 50 people show up.....we have save numerous homes and businesses..not just in our town either..and our on sceane time is about 5 min after page..yeah it is a bit slow but we dont live at the station some of our memebers are 5 miles away on a dirt road...tell ya what john if all you are going to do is slam our dedicated department then dont bother trying to help...
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thanks derek
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Then you missed the point. I am not knocking the dept, I am knocking the attitude of those saying "that is what we pay taxes for".......they tend to expect an FDNY response with a $0 budget.
As for what you may or may not have done, sorry, the math is there. Sure you may get on scene quick and hit a fire from the outside etc, but for a typical room and contents fire it still takes 15 to 18 FFs on scene to effectively mitigate......THat is according to NFPA.
Now I never said you can't do shit, I said you aren't going to do squat with a six man dept....in the realm of the real numbers to do all the fireground tasks needed......care to argue those facts?
You are talking about getting grants for a new building, but state businesses etc say "that is what we pay taxes for".....and you have 6 people out of 400 because of the requirements placed on training etc for FFs. Sorry, your service level sucks......and I'm not knocking your dept nor dedication of members, but that is reality, the service level is not conducive to just feigning off financial issues as "that is what we pay taxes for".
Oh and perhaps you should understand about response times. It means nothing if one or a couple guys show up but can't mitigate the fire. Many depts have used the aspect of response time to show the effectiveness of the dept. I know of several where a duty officer, etc responds directly to the scene, thus having a quick "response time", but to get enough people and equipment there can take quite a bit longer to effectively mitigate the emergency.
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well i do understand the NFPA facts but...that doesnt fix our issue...with an opperating budget of 5k per year and a average household income of 30 k per yr in a county of 3400..how can we do any better if we dont have the intrest and support of the community...we give it all we have to give i have even purchased our firefighters gear with my own money i fix the equipment for free.. i am at my whitts end here..i go to every council meeting and bang my we need more funding drum..but "they" are broke but "they" have 6500 for a new b ball court..yeah i know we wont have the appropriate staffing to do shit..but it wont stop us from trying..we havent lost a house yet grantid we run maybe 5 r&c fires a year but we get it done..but this is way off subject of what i am asking..so..how do i get funding for a fire station..that is what i want to know
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..how do i get funding for a fire station..that is what i want to know
First I understand the dilema you are painting here and there really is nothing I'm going to say that is going to make things any easier, and what I may suggest would be easily scoffed at.
So without going that route, yet, how IS funding actually set up for the dept? Is it through taxes as the businesses are saying? Is it by donations? Also who has governing authority over the FD (IE who does the chief answer to)? Is it a mayor/council? A board of commissioners? Are you in a fire district or are you a stand alone dept?
If there are taxes being paid and if the city/town etc council has authority, then that is a source right there for some funds. However, it is going to take more than attending meetings and "bang the we need funding drum"......it is time to do the math.
Figure out what the tax rate is, you can find out what is being paid by businesses etc because this is public record and such info should be able to obtain from the municipality. You should also be able to find out the funding that goes to the FD.......which can be used to show the "that's what we pay taxes for" crowd.
Then start breaking things down, itemize the cost of operations, equipment, maintanence, etc, etc. Show the cost per member that hasn't been reimbursed (IE stuff you personally paid for) Break down response time, and time it takes to get people on scene, use those NFPA numbers and so forth to show how significant of a disparity you are operating with. Compile as much data as you can and anticipate questions etc. Then look to making up a booklet etc that you can give to elected officials AND businesses.
Then, set up one on one meetings with the elected officials, go through the numbers to show why you need a new building. Show why your current situation isn't feasible, nor condusive to safe and effective operations. Do the same thing with the business owners as well, show exactly what they are paying taxes for and why funding is imperative. (You hit the businesses because they may start contacting the elected officials and prioritize funding).
You then go public. Get the story and the numbers out to the local paper/media that you have closest to you. Make it known that the FD desperately needs some help and then start putting the numbers out as well....such as what NFPA calls for and what you are actually responding with. Show that the "value" the public is getting is actually subpar and this is what they are living with.
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John, I'm impressed. Great advice not only for Jason but for many other small struggling departments around the country. Hopefully the will read it.
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