PDA

View Full Version : Whats up with FEMA?

ems655
09-12-2007, 05:33 PM
Two departments get $1,000,000 for communications and we cannot get $70,000 for a vehicle upgrade from a 1980 remounted ambulance. We were asking for a basic rescue rig.
Tower47
09-13-2007, 08:55 PM
You need to show how your grant will help several departments or you need to have importent goverment infistructure. Those 2 grants where for counties severing a large area and therefore a large population etc. Sometimes you need to us a little writer's creativity, just don't lie!
SLY4420
09-13-2007, 09:18 PM
You need to show how your grant will help several departments or you need to have importent goverment infistructure. Those 2 grants where for counties severing a large area and therefore a large population etc. Sometimes you need to us a little writer's creativity, just don't lie!

This isn't the only thing that is important when writing these grants. They help, but plenty of people have been helped without having "important government infrastructure." Your local infrastructure is certainly factored in, but not the total basis of an award.

Also, we've already done the whining about Round 6 here: :rolleyes:

http://forums.firehouse.com/showthread.php?t=93817
BC79er
09-14-2007, 10:43 AM
Toss in the fact that rescue vehicles are a Priority 2 unless you're an urban area, which basically means it won't see the light of day since fire suppression is the main focus of the grant program. Tools and trained FFs make rescues; rescue trucks are filed in the nice to have category since the other two items will fit on any truck.
LVFD301
09-14-2007, 11:22 AM
I too wonder whats up with FEMA. How do they figure all this stuff out? They seem to do a really good job, but it certainly seems thankless.

I had put in for turnouts for years. Beat my head against the wall. Saw lots of other departments get them, many that I felt were no where near as deserving as us.

I figured, maybe I was doing something wrong... NAH. That could not be. I tried again. Turned down.

Went to class - taught by BC79er. Put in for those turnouts again. My application was not that much different than in the past, just worded some things differently, added a couple of points, dropped some crap.

Lo and behold, I GOT 39K for new turnouts! Turns out it was my lack of education on the grants that was getting me turned down, not anything on FEMA's end. Who would have thunk?