Noticeable Trend?

[ltoffd]

I have been following the grant process since its inception and reading many comments on this thread. Everyone has been very helpful in guiding some of us through the grant process and we have fortunately received awards the past two years. This year, following just the applications in the State of Ohio, nearly every award made to date is to a Department that has not received funding in the past. Does anyone notice the same trend in their state? This could be a very good thing for those who have not been successful in previous awards.

[SamsonFCDES]

That does not seem to be the case in MT. We have had 3 and now it seems 4 time grant recipiants.

One trend that it seems is taking place is that the FDs near the Canadian border and the ones from the more populated areas are getting the early round grants.

DHS hand a work?

Or just coincidense? (SP, hard word...)

[ChiefDog]

Boy I hope you are right!

We have not gotten an award since the FEMA grant was started...what is it 4 years now.

We are 6 miles from the Canadian Border with a major port of entry (POE) into the US on I89 which runs through our town. One of the major POE from the Port of Montreal into the US.

We would be second due to the POE, but could actually arrive first due to our proximity to the Interstate on ramp compared to the first due department. But one thing for sure we would be going if it is something major.

Good luck...

[firefighter3131]

From my stand point, it appears as though there are departments that are receiving the grants over and over again. Our department has applied and been denied twice now. Hopefully third time will be the charm. I don't understand why the same departments keep getting the money. If the government wants to spread the funds out, they sure are not keeping very good records of who is and who isn't getting the money. My guess is if we don't get it this time, we will not apply again.

[firefighterbeau]

i know of depts that didn't get a grant the first year, then the next year got a grant for the same things they put in for the first time alot of it is how you write your grants, once you learn what the review groups are looking for you can keep getting grants. yes it seems some depts are getting grant over and over, and some that this year i even question, one district got a grant for there ''rural dept'' then got one for there ''city''. hopefully the program keeps going and it gets the bugs worked out of it. i have also seen alot of posts about not appling again and i can see the frusration, but just remember that if you don't apply your giving up a chance at getting alot of equipment for 10 cents on the dollar. good luck everyone!

[SWFD94]

I don't understand why the same departments keep getting the money. If the government wants to spread the funds out, they sure are not keeping very good records of who is and who isn't getting the money

Departments are awarded based on need, not who has and has not gotten money in the past. That is not to say that one department has a greater need than another department. At that point, your skill in writing the grant and expressing your need comes out. One grant may not cover all the needs for that department, and that might be why they are getting more than one grant (such as the case with my departmennt). Also, the needs might be in different areas (i.e. vehicle, FF ops, EMS).

[mmorrow432]

We got our no letter last week. Seems we raise too much money. Our volunteers work their tails off to raise money to help the department. We fry fish at the staion twice a year and fry eight days in july at the county fair. I sure didn't think we would be penilized for bettering our dept. Any one noticed how many grants PA is getting? Where is Tom Ridge from again? makes me wonder how fair the system really is.

[bburkett]

In my county in PA, 3 depts have receievd 3 grants each and 4 have each received 2.

My dept is 0-4! We can't figure out what we are doing wrong!

[bburkett]

We you told you raise too much money? We work our rears off with almost 70 fundraisers a year... to the point that no on has time for training! We need a break so we can spend more time on what we exist for... firefighting and rescue!

[SamsonFCDES]

Originally posted by bburkett
In my county in PA, 3 depts have receievd 3 grants each and 4 have each received 2.

My dept is 0-4! We can't figure out what we are doing wrong!

Who did you send you case of Old Number 7 to...

[oldman21220]

If you are familar with a variety of places, then you know that grants are not necessarily awarded on the basis of need.

[BC79er_OLDDELETE]

Of course not. Need is only one factor. Population benefited is another. Priority of project is another. There's several more, so need is only a small piece of the pie. Don't get me wrong I think everyone needs good PPE and SCBA. And I don't think fitness equipment should be a priority, but for career departments (who don't compete against combo or volunteer), most don't have much else to apply for.

We got canned and I think it's because we 'only' spend 68% of our budget on salaries for our weekday crews. At over 4,000 calls the rest is maintenance, fuel, and wear and tear related costs. Doesn't leave much for replacing stuff, or breaking into new ventures like the Symtron trailer we applied for. But as the application sits, you can't articulate peripheral costs. I'm not complaining about us getting canned, just explaining how it comes out the other end. I'm happy to see more PPE, SCBA, and cascade systems being awarded. We have all of that and we don't need the burn trailer as bad as some need the other stuff.

[Engine683]

Originally posted by mmorrow432
We got our no letter last week. Seems we raise too much money. Our volunteers work their tails off to raise money to help the department. We fry fish at the staion twice a year and fry eight days in july at the county fair. I sure didn't think we would be penilized for bettering our dept. Any one noticed how many grants PA is getting? Where is Tom Ridge from again? makes me wonder how fair the system really is.

Unless your two fish frys are netting you $50,000 a piece, don't blame your firefighters hard work for not getting a grant. About 97% of our budget is raised by our firefighters, with weekly bingo, monthly breakfast, hauling 3/4 million gallons 3,000 gallons at a time to fill swimming pools, and yes, sweating it out at the local fair, to raise our funds. We've applied for 3 years now, and this is the first year we've been awarded ($34,000 for new SCBA). Reading things into the Dear John letter that aren't there won't make for a better application next year, and I doubt your Dear John letter said anything about raising to much money. Instead, look at what you applied for, how many citizens would be affected, what the cost/benefit ratio could be (awarding a $750,000 ladder truck to a department that protects 100 citizens would be an extreme example, but you get the idea) and figure out how to improve it next year.

I won't get into the whole PA thing, because there's already a couple other threads dealing with it. I will be the first to say that the way PA handles FD may not be very effecient, but it is what it is, and PA ends up having a LOT of fire departments. I read (but I don't know if the math is correct) that PA departments make up about 10% of the applications, so if we get 10% of the awards, that would seem to make sense. But if it makes you feel better to blame our ex-governor, then do so, but keep in mind you're going to have to share space with the people who think Texas is getting more than it's share because of the president, and border departments are getting more than their share because of terrorism concerns, and volunteers are getting more than their share because they're volunteers, and so on.

Do yourself and your department a favor, go over your application and see if you can figure out why the computer kicked it out. That's what I did; I learned from my mistakes and this year got the grant.

Or move to Pennsylvania... we always need more volunteers, and it seems half the people here think we're rolling in the dough!