Those watching the Assistance to Firefighters Grants (AFG) program and Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grants may have noticed a hiatus in the normal weekly flow of announcements.
The last announcement, round 10 came September 5 and at that point, totaled a little over $70 million.
Grant administrator Brian Cowan said that in past years when this point was reached, a normal process of reconciling accounts has taken place and the stoppage was only one or two weeks. Grant announcements this year and previously flow through the end of one federal fiscal year and into another. Accounting measures have to take place for this transition and therefore the hold on announcements for a period, he said.
This year, the process has taken longer than usual but should begin again in about two weeks. There is about $430 million to be awarded. Cowan said the grants have been averaging about $100,000 so that would mean there are still approximately 4300 departments out there to get notice of awards.
And Cowan hopes to be wrapped up on AFG and also SAFER awards by the end of 2008.
The timeline for other parts of the program include: Fire Prevention and Safety Grant applications for the 2008 money will start in November; The application period for AFG 2009 begins March, 2009; The application period for SAFER 2009 begins June, 20O9.
