Peer review for the FY 2007 Assistance to Firefighters Grants program (AFG) began this week and will conclude at the end of next week according to AFG Program Director Brian Cowan. He believes grant announcements will begin the last week of July.
During the FY 2007 application period, 20,732 applications were submitted requesting awards totaling about $3.4 billion of which the federal share would be about $3.1 billion as the balance would be department's matches. The program has $492 million to award. Somewhat over $27 million is available for fire prevention grants.
There is $115 million available for Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grants. Cowan said peer review for those applications will begin soon.
The greatest change in program applications this year was, in prior years, applicants were limited to submitting one single application under either the Operations and Safety or Vehicle Acquisition program areas. However, in FY 2007, all eligible applicants could submit two separate applications, i.e., one application under Operations and Safety and a second application under Vehicle Acquisition.
Additionally, fire departments and nonaffiliated emergency medical service (EMS) organizations that provide first responder services to urban and suburban communities could request multiple vehicles on their Vehicle Acquisition application while departments servicing rural communities will still be restricted to a one vehicle per request. Cowan said that 60% of the total money requested was for Vehicle Acquisition.
Finally, the restriction that precluded previous vehicle awardees from receiving a subsequent vehicle award was removed.
The FY 2007 AFG also allowed eligible applicants to submit a third application for a regional project, in addition to their application(s) for operations and/or vehicles (up to 3 separate applications). The result is that one applicant could address more than one operational need, as well as address issues of interoperability during one grant year.
As the AFG Program awards are announced, Firehouse.com will announce each round and provide the list with state by state breakdowns.
