Local fire departments get federal grants

By CYNTHIA AUKERMAN

News-Gazette reporter

Two local fire departments will be receiving a total of $162,089 in grants from the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Domestic Preparedness in cooperation with the U.S. Fire Administration.

The Parker Volunteer Fire Department will receive $89,325 for operations and fire fighter safety. The Union City, Ind. Fire Department will receive $72,764.

Mike Freeman, Parker fire chief said his department would use the money for new turnout gear, breathing apparatus, fire hose and possibly some extrication equipment.

The annual budget for the Parker Volunteer Fire Department is approximately $19,500, so the federal grant is clearly a boost for a community that would find it very difficult to raise almost $90,000 locally.

Parker will have to come up with a 10 percent matching grant.

Freeman said he was both pleased and surprised to receive the grant, considering that his department applied for the grant last year without success.

In Union City, Fire Chief Tim Troxell said his department would use part of the grant to buy a fixed generator so its facility could be used as a true evacuation center. Currently the department has only portable gas-fired generators that have to be operated in the bays with the doors open, thereby making the building unusable as an evacuation center.

The grant will also provide a high pressure fill station and cascade system to replenish tanks for breathing apparatus. The department will be able to refill tanks from other departments.

Because the Union City, Ind. Fire Department already used EDIT funds from the county to purchase rescue tools, that money will now be freed to pay for upgrading in-house training materials, as well as materials to use in the schools. Troxell said the department's videos to use in the schools are so old they no longer fit today's curriculum.

The department will also use part of the grant money on identifying high risk areas in the community, especially risks to an aging population.

The Union City, Ind. Fire Department has applied for a federal grant every year that it has been available, and this is its first successful application.

Troxell attributed the department's success in this year's grant program to several factors. First, the department quit asking for federal funding for a fire vehicle. Second, with the help of Joanna Shaneyfelt, a full-time employee, the department gained insight into the screening process for the federal grants.

Shaneyfelt attended the National Fire Academy and was invited to take part in the grant-screening process. She does not work with grant applications from this area, but she was able to share her expertise with the local fire department when it was rethinking the narrative process for the grants.

The Winchester Fire Department also applied for a federal grant, but it is still awaiting notification of the results.

In a press release announcing the grants, Congressman Mike Pence said, "Our local fire departments are the first responders when tragedy strikes, yet often they are the most in need when it comes to funding."

The Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program awards one-year grants directly to fire departments to support the nation's firefighters and the services they deliver.

For the 2004 program Congress appropriated, and President George W. Bush signed into law, $750 million in direct assistance to firefighters to improve the effectiveness of firefighting operations, firefighter health and safety programs and to establish or expand fire prevention programs throughout the United States.