Grant Awards

All morning I’ve been fielding phone calls. Okay that’s not unusual you say. Well it is when you consider that three of them have been from both of my State Senators and my State Representative to Congress. Seems the grant application my Fire Department submitted under the Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program has been approved.

So I know what the Board of Directors will be doing for the next 3 months….we’ll be getting building permits and lining up the contractors to install our new Vehicle Diesel Exhaust system. Yeah!

According to the Grant Program web page there were a Total of 20,972 requests for a total dollar amount of $2,916,760,440. Not sure how much will be approved but if it was all approved the Feds would be giving out grants totaling $2,677,956,855. According to the latest press release, in September the AFGP will have issued approximately 5,500 awards worth nearly $600 million in direct assistance to firefighters and first responders throughout the country, demonstrating Homeland Security's commitment to ensuring that America's firefighters have the resources they need to protect their communities. That’s a nice chunk of change but nothing compared to what Police Departments have been receiving for the past 20 years.

Please, call your Congressmen and Senators and let them know that the Assistance to Firefighter’s Grant program is important to you and your community.

Thanks.