Heavy Rescue Grant Narrative?

[TexasEng422Tanker]

Posts: 8 Heavy Rescue Grant?

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Does anyone have a winning grant narrative for a heavy rescue. Or has tryied to apply for heavy rescue. Our department is looking into coving our county of 14 different department with a heavy rescue that will provide coverage being the county emergency response team. Can any one help?

[onebugle]

Posts: 8 Heavy Rescue Grant?

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Does anyone have a winning grant narrative for a heavy rescue. Or has tryied to apply for heavy rescue. Our department is looking into coving our county of 14 different department with a heavy rescue that will provide coverage being the county emergency response team. Can any one help?

A rescue award is rare with less than a handful being awarded. Unless you are classifed "Urban" there is no chance of an award. It's a Priority 1 vehicle for Urban, but at the bottom of the list making it the lowest priority within that catergory. If you are a "Suburban" or "Rural" classification a rescue is a Priority 2...no chance of an award.

[Greenacres2]

Also not eligible as a regional project.

Assuming a department is urban, the computer will be screening on first due call volumes, not the county-wide coverage potential (that does become a great tool in the narrative though). A willingness to over-match (applying for 50% to 60% of estimated cost instead of 80% urban funding as an example) might help some in getting it to peer. Some might not be enough, but anything to improve your odds.

Not impossible, but it will be a tough ticket. Good luck.

ear;

[BC79er]

There have been less than 10 rescues of any size (light, medium, heavy) since 2001. I picked up the 1st one in 2002, wasn't another one until 2005, then had a client hit one in 2009. Friends department out of Maryland picked one up in 2008 also. With the right numbers and classification it can be done.

[Catch22]

Out of curiosity, where does "Urban" come into play as far as population/sq. mile?

[BC79er]

HUD varies between 2000 and 2500 residents per square mile on population density. DHS uses that as a base but also pulls in the hydrant coverage and % breakdown on residential/commercial/open space in the first-due. Only way to truly tell what anyone is would be to plug in numbers and see where the designation changes by picking one value and seeing if they add that red sentence in the narrative page about needing to explain the choice.

[BoxAlarm187]

I don't mean to hijack the thread too much, but I thought that this might somewhat fall into the same category.

Our VFD serves 7000 people in a 72-square mile area (total of 272 square miles in the county). We work seamlessly with the our four VFD's in the county, doing automatic aid with one another several times a day. Although obviously not deemed urban by DHS, we've gotten a number of strip malls in the past couple of years, a Wal-Mart is getting ready to go in across the street from the VFD, as is a large apartment complex. However, the building officials won't let any construction greater than 3 stories occur, based on the lack of an aerial device.

There currently isn't an aerial device in the county, and the closest two aerials have at least a 20 minute response time from two adjacent counties.

We have fire service leaders who are trying to champion the purchase of a 100' tower ladder or tiller (with tank & pump on either). However, I know at one time there was a qualifier that the non-urban areas were limited to a 75' quint. Is this still a limitation?

I guess the biggest question is this: would we be wasting our time putting in for something like this (IE: the app gets kicked out prior to even making it to peer review)? This rig would be routinely serving a population that far exceeds our primary area, but if the red flags are going to be put up before we even make it to peer review, we'll focus on another project.

Thanks!

[BC79er]

Correct, better chance of hitting MegaMillions. Only Urban and Suburban have 100' aerials and quints as Priority 1 trucks. Your pop density is 100/sq mi, so Rural by all counts. It's the first-due of the applicant as the computer scoring, all else is narrative ammo if it gets read.

Of course if no other vehicle application would be any more competitive for said applicant, fire away with it for the 100'. Worse they can say is no. I just wouldn't hire anyone to do it since the numbers are so stacked, it would be a waste of money. Including hiring us, I tell people every year not to waste their money on a grant writer. Nothing I can do to make it more competitive if there's little chance of a narrative being read. Nothing anyone can do in that case, so might as well save the bucks and write it yourself. If it makes Peer and gets turned down, maybe think about finding a 3rd party.

[BoxAlarm187]

Awesome, exactly the answer that I was looking for. We'll keep on the elected officials about providing the funding for the ladder.

Time to focus on equipment....