1199a link but no 7???

[LFD2203]

got the 1199a link on the application status page. anyone got that before getting the 7 questions??? starting to get excited.....are we going shopping?

[NorthSabine100]

Our dept. has been waiting since the first of October when we received our sf1199a request! Received the confirmation back from FEMA on 10-28-03 no questions or "Manage Grant" link on the application status page to date.

[mjboom]

We received our 1199A before the questions. See the thread "No News..." below for our timline.

[JimT57]

Congratulations,

I got my 1199a link on 11/23 and got the 7 questions today 12/1 via e-mail. Called the FEMA rep that sent me the e-mail to check on how to send the questions back. She told me to hit "reply" on my mail, answer the 7 questions, then hit "send." That is what I did - but believe me, I saved it on my hard drive, on a floppy, and also printed it out! I ain't gonna lose this! We are going shopping (I hope).....Good luck to the rest - by the way, my buddy's dept still has no word...is that a good sign?

[NorthSabine100]

mj
We would love to have had that same time line;

Originally posted by mjboom
Next Update:

1199A on 10/21/03

Questions on 11/6/03

1199A Confirmation on 11/17/03

Notice of award came today 11/28!!


In another week it will be two months waiting for the questions and manage grant link! I emailed the help desk and was told that we may have more than 1 login name and to check all logins and the status page again (like I dont at least twice a day). We only have one login and still no change on the status page. Emailed the help desk again yesterday - now we are waiting on that answer also.

[firelaw]

We are in the same state as your. Recieved the 1099A in Oct with a confirmation shortly afterwards but still no questions

[NorthSabine100]

firelaw,
Email me if and when you get the questions. The Help Desk emailed me back and said the our application was still being considered and didnt offer a time frame. I just thought that I checked my email alot waiting for the 1199 or a DJ now it is worse than ever having filled out the 1199 and waiting on the questions for over two months!

[LFD2203]

Okay, has anybody got the 1199a and THEN got a Dear John? I'm trying to evaluate our situation. Thanks and good luck to all of you who are still waiting to hear. I continue to live under the idea that no news is good news.........

[NorthSabine100]

LF,
I have never heard of anyone getting a DJ after receiving a 1199 request, (past three years of the Fire Act) and I am looking at having received the 1199 as a good sign because its the first time that we have received it. Our dept was DJ in late December last year! Merry Christmas! We are hoping on a Happy New Year and are not wasting any time on 2004 grant!

[DCOFDFL]

Received the 1199 link to update on 11/20. Sent it back, no 7 questions yet or confirmation of receiving the 1199 back to FEMA. Still waiting.

[SmokeyDaBear]

How about this.... Recieved 7 questions on 11-12-03..no 1199a link... talked to FEMA on 11-5-03, application currently under review.....12-11-03 recieved 7 questions again and sent them back again.....anybody get questions twice but no 1199a link?

[jboczek]

NorthSabine, we got a request for the 1199a the first year, sent it back and got a DJ in December, if I remember right. of course, the first year everything was done on paper which could have made a difference. We're waiting for something this year, just like a bunch of others. Good to know we're not the only ones to not hear something.

[NorthSabine100]

Still wishing for a Merry Christmas for the grant! But, if we still get the DJ I will reapply, our department has been working on the vendors so if we are successful we can move quickly to get the badly needed equipment(applied for scba/turnouts/tic). Good luck to all still waiting, its difficult and I can relate to the stress.

[LFD2203]

Got the 7 questions today. just took a great big breath....looking for the credit card........

[DCOFDFL]

Got our 7 questions plus 1 on 12/16. Requesting if we wold take a reduction. Replied back and now waiting for the next step.

[busmaster]

We received an e-mail on 8-21-03 that said our grant was favorably reveiwed by the peer group and along with it came 6 questions, to which we replied and received a confirmation back, but have heard nothing since.

[LFD2203]

1.21.04: Got the call from the senator's office, can't wait until Fri for the real deal..everybody, hand in there.....

[firemedic43]

some of you may remember the 'ol ffpm43, well I have had to change that due to a new email, anyway... we got the magic "7" on 1/14 and still havent heard... hoping for round 30, maybe 31. Keep looking up, my rememberance from last year was 1-2 weeks after the 7 questions. By the way... mine came from a direct call from fema, not the email system.

[NorthSabine100]

Well my fear of getting a DJ after getting the 1199 link is gone! We received an email from FEMA early this morning of our notification. So if you have rec. 1199 or the questions hang in there. If you havent heard anything hang there.

1199 in mid Oct. and confirmed a week later.
9 questions in mid Dec. and confirmed the next day.
award notification today - over a month from the questions.

Its a long hard process - but I am very thankful to have had the chance. Our dept. did not apply in 2001 were denied in 2002 and I learned last year not to depend just on this Grant. I am pursuing any and all types of funding because of this forum and other depts both near and far that apply of grants and loans.

Good luck to all still waiting if you havent had to wait you dont have a clue what it is like for those depts that are.

[KMG698]

I received questions on 1/6/2004. Responded the same day via my personal e-mail address. Then re-sent my reply on 1/8/2004 via the e-mail system. To date no response from FEMA and no 1199a link....?

[fd1chief]

Attached is a letter that I felt forced to send to our Congressman last Friday, January 23, 2004.

Has anyone else had similar problems? If you have, I would appreciate hearing about it from you.


Dear Congressman -----

I have avoided bothering you with this problem in hopes of being able to work it out with FEMA on my own, but time is running short and I fear that if something isn’t done very soon, we will miss out on a grant opportunity through no fault of our own.

We applied for a 2003 Fire Act Grant in March of 2003. On July 2, 2003 we received an e-mail from FEMA asking us to fill out an 1199A and return it to them as we had made it through the peer review process and they needed this information before sending our application on to the next step.

The way the process works is all grants are graded then awarded in the order of there ranking. Once you have answered FEMA with your 1199A, you then are asked to answer 6 to 8 questions. Once that is done, you are then asked to answer the Station Modifications questions. Once that is done, you are awarded a grant. This entire process takes 3 to 5 weeks from start to finish.

It has now been 7 Months since we were first ask for the 1199A information. We have sent the 1199A to FEMA 3 times, the 6 to 8 questions answers 3 times and the Station Modification questions 4 times. Each time we sent this information to FEMA by certified next day mail or e-mail when requested and have confirmation from the shipper that it was received by the FEMA Grants Management Branch. We even have e-mail confirmation from people at FEMA that the information was received.

Yet, somehow 2 or 3 weeks later we will get a phone call or e-mail from someone else at FEMA telling us that they have not yet received our replies

I am serious, we have sent the 3 separate requested items to FEMA a total of 10 times and it has gotten lost or miss placed every time.

Being ask for this information by FEMA is a very good indication that you are going to get a grant, they don’t waste there time asking this info of departments if they are not going to eventually award you a grant.

My concern is that we are now nearing the end of the 2003 Fire Act Grant award process. The money is almost gone and I fear that we will end up not getting a grant that we were supposed to get back in July or August of 2003 because our information keeps getting lost or misplaced by FEMA.

If I were to tell you all the details of this incredible misadventure it would take about 8 pages and you probably wouldn’t want to read that long of a letter. So let me just say this. I have all the documentation, receipts, confirmations and notes from phone conversations to prove that what I am telling you is absolutely the truth. (About 30 pages of correspondence, e-mails, etc.)

At this point I am extremely frustrated and really don’t know what else to do. I really think we were supposed to get a grant but have been lost and misplaced so many times by FEMA that at some point if our info gets lost again someone with FEMA is going to decide that we didn’t respond so to hell with us.

As I have all ready mentioned, I honestly feel that we have done all that we could possibly do to resolve this issue so I am now asking you for your assistance. Could you or someone from your staff please discuss this problem with FEMA and try to determine our status in the grant process. As I mentioned above, there isn’t much time left to act on this as only about 10% of the 2003 Fire Act Funds remain to be awarded.

(When talking to FEMA, our grant reference number is --- ---- -- ----)

Thanks again for your help and future response regarding this issue.

Sincerely




I sent this on Friday and had an e-mail from our Congressmans office this morning saying they would check into it. I'll post the end results when I here them.

[MJ801FL]

Wow, thats unreal...Good Luck