Still waiting Thread !

[cressonafireman]

Dear fellow emergency service providers,
I thought since we are into round 7 and some of us still are highly impatient in anticipation of any news on our grants that we wrote. Well I would like to hear what everyone is hoping for ! I myself am hoping to receive the grant for a vehicle acquisition. I have applied every year to this point. We have a 1981 Duplex which is our primary piece . The way it is we have dumped numerous man hours & dollars in repair to keep it going. I am still smiling because "No news is Good News" I am remaining hopeful because I know the time & effort I have into writing the grant. So I am looking forward to hearing other stories that are similiar to mine. Good Luck to all !

[Chief310]

My department requested funding for a 75' quint to replace a 1973 Sutphen 750 GMP pumper. We're also participating in a regional grant request to replace outdated SCBA countywide with complaint, interoperable equipment. We've applied every year for either a vehicle or SCBA and have been denied.

Until the 1st round of "Dear John's" comes out, no news is just no news.

[ktb9780]

I wish you luck guys. If the dreaded DJ should arrive, give me a call and let's remedy that situation for you.

[gfd505]

We are still anxiously waiting to here one way or another. We are hoping to add a 1250 gpm 1000 tank pumper, our reserve pumper was taken out of service 3 years ago due to cost prohibitive repairs. We are 1 for 2 the last few years. Got all new SCBA, turnouts and compressor,fill station last year.
Tried for pumper the year before.

[BC79er_OLDDELETE]

Slim pickens left after Round 7. And I'm not talking about the guy from Blazing Saddles ("What in the wide, wide world of sports is going on here?")

To date:
3386 Ops & Safety - $282,112,434
862 Vehicles - $151,719,868

According to the PPT Presentation here are the total amounts available:
Fire $412,750,000 Operations and Safety
Fire $159,250,000 Vehicles

EMS $9,750,000 Operations and Safety
EMS $3,250,000 Vehicles

Under $8 million left for Fire Vehicles. At the average price, there are about 40-50 trucks left. Only 26 trucks have been awarded for over $300K. Quints are a rare beast to get, pumpers take priority in the matrix. I'm batting 1000 for trucks this year myself and I have to mention again, it has to be right truck for the right department in the right situation. And even then, pure competition takes over. In the PPT they mention that there were around 1000 trucks in 2004, 1,340 in 2003, 300 in 2002, 100 in 2001. And in the last 3 years there were around 7,000 applications for vehicles. There is a lot of need out there.

Hence the reason to lobby for more money for these programs.

[dekalbchief]

Our EMA Director told me that he was contacted in June regarding our grant application. He stated that the grants office was checking to make sure our communications equipment that was include in our grant application was interoperatible and that it did not duplicate any funding received under other DHS programs. Since the equipment was interoperatible and we have not received any DHS money for communications equipment that would duplicate our application request, I was hoping that the contact was a good sign. That was over 3 months ago. No questions, calls, or pigeons. Happy to be in the "still waiting" group and hope not to get in the "DJ" group .

[BC79er_OLDDELETE]

I don't want to get your hopes up too high since anything can happen, but they usually don't make many phone calls without a purpose. They run a pretty efficient ship, they were averaging around 2-3% of the program's money in administrative costs, and the program allows for 5%.

[huck3040]

We are still waiting to hear on a new tanker. The way it looks though I'm starting to get discouraged. No questions or 1199A. This would be the first time out of three trys that we don't get a grant. Congrats to all who have received the good news already.

[ktb9780]

dekalb,

I would take that as a good sign, as there is a strong emphasis on interoperabie communications. They were pretty specific in the PG that you had to be SAFECOM/APCO and P-25 compliant, or that your state had waived the requirement, hence why your application was subjected to another level of scrutiny but, I would certainly not give up the ship yet. Hang in there.

gfd,

As Brian reiterated "right truck, right place, met BOTH requirements for age and mileage". If you did that, you still have a fghting chance depending upon a number of other factors which Brian or I would have to know to give an accurate prediction.

[SLY4420]

Still waiting here also.

I just sent 6 guys to National Fire 1 course starting this week and we were informed that 4 sets of gear are not acceptable for the class. We don't have any other gear right now to even fit these guys so I'm not even sure that they will be allowed to finish the class. It's a big shame when I have people who want to volunteer, want proper training, but we just can't furnish them with equipment on our operating expenses.

Hopefully a miracle will happen and I will be awarded this years grant which would cover gear for all our personnel.

[BaderD]

We are currently running old Scott 2.2's....Waiting on (not expecting anymore) 20-24 new MSA's 4.5's. When i did the calculations it would cost only $15K-$20K more to get all new as opposed to upgrading, so i figured it was worth the shot....but at the rate we are goin for grants im just waiting for the DJ to come. Being that this was the first grant that i have ever written, i didnt think i did too bad but looks like i am goin to have to try and get some advice from BC, Dixie, or Kurt next time around....looks like beginers luck doesnt really happen here..lol

Just a quick question though to the experts....if i didnt put in for a TIC as well as a Compressor system would i of had better luck, even though i did a pretty good job justifying them???

[BC79er_OLDDELETE]

It would depend on whether or not you made it into Peer Review. Some apps with that list of items make it through, some don't. It all depends on the entire package, which is why we all say narrative is important, but if it's not the right project it will never get read. 99% of the time it's better to stick to one project package (like SCBA and compressor) than pile it all on hoping for something. The majority of successful grants address 1 and only 1 issue, which is why some departments get back to back awards. In some of the ones I reviewed, had they packaged the two applications, they would still be waiting for an award. Depending on your classification, there are other outlets for TICs, regardless of how well justified it might be. It pales in comparison to the SCBA part of the project.

And don't take that to mean that I think you're getting canned. I'm sure it's a good grant you put together, probably even a great one. But when only Really Great Grants are winning money, Great doesn't cut it anymore. It's all relative.

[ktb9780]

BadewrD I would be more concerned with the number you asked for. How many seated positions are on your primary apparatus? By the way if you are under 50K pop and have not had access to SHSG money oyu need to be looking at applying for CEDAP in the Second Phaese. Alomst allof my departments who went for that in Pahse 1 got their TICs ( Bullard T1s).

[Not2L84U2]

have not had access to SHSG money

What is SHSG and how you would know if you would be eligible for it?

[BC79er_OLDDELETE]

SHSP - State Homeland Security Program. It's part of the Homeland Security Grant Program: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/odp/grants_programs.htm

Most of the money is aimed towards Urban areas (i.e. high probability targets), so some suburban, and dang near all rural classifications are not going to see anything from either of these programs. Hence, CEDAP.

[ktb9780]

Thanks for answering that for him Brian. Been driving for 12 hours today to get here for seminar in Charlotte.

[BC79er_OLDDELETE]

No problem. I remember you mentioning you were heading that way this week, although I didn't think you'd get behind the wheel for it. That's a long commute. I'm dreading the drive in the Uhaul from Philly to here again at Thanksgiving. Of course before Rita a 12 hour drive was only 8 miles long.....

Charlotte must be the area to be for seminars, I've got one scheduled for Shelby NC, right down the road from there in December.

[BaderD]

As of 1530 Hrs EDT there is still no word frim FEMA for our grant. seeing that a lot of people are saying that they got their DJ's does that mean we are still in the running for a grant, or do they still have more DJ's to send out in the first round?

We are keeping our fingers crossed that we are still in the running and that we will recieve the 10 ?'s soon.

[BC79er_OLDDELETE]

You're still in the running until you're not. I haven't heard confirmation that this was the full 1st round of DJs or not. If it was, then those of us left made it into Peer Review. If not, then probably more will be sent next week to finish off the non-reviewed DJs.

[huck3040]

Still no 1199 form
Still no questions
STILL NO DJ!! Well I hope they are about done sending the 1st round out, and start concentrating on getting them questions sent to us.