When are the Dear John Letters going out

[fireguy2003]

Does anybody know when the Dear John letters are going to be givin out, I heard Mid July August but I am really not sure about it. Please reply back.

[Flochief]

I asked a while back! Still no answer.

[sidwigley]

Sounds like we are in the same boat. I guess NO news is GOOOOOOD news for now anyway. Last I heard was like you said July/Aug. time frame. The wait is killing me again. Ya'll be safe......

[waterboy1]

Well July is just hours from being over and still no word. I know that they are supposed to explain what we screwed up on this year but it seems that Fema could just put us out of our misery now. Last we waited until Oct. to get the Dear John and in 2001 we got it in July. Maybe we will get lucky, ya right, we live in the wrong State.

[Oxbow13671]

Come on and get it over with.....

Come on FEMA and get it overwith... I would also like to know when my dear John letter is coming or not.. When your yearly budget depends on whether you are getting the grant or not... it would be helpful to just release the dear Johns NOW... I do now believe that if you didn't spend money and get a grant writer.. you are out of the running.... What that means, if you are poor, then do not apply...

[CRRFIRE]

The word I have is that FEMA was going to be late in getting the letters out - probably in Aug. The reason you got you letter in Oct last year was that you actually made it through the process but they ran out of money before they got to you. This year it will be even worse - there were some 15.000+ that made it through the process. They are making awards to the first 7000+/- that ranked the top of the pile, then they are going to go until the money runs out. So if you did not make it through outright - expect a letter soon. If you did, now you wait...

[webteam]

Folks

Awards are going out through next June. There could be some that don't find out either way for nearly a year. Patience is a must here.

Thanks
WebTeam

[CRRFIRE]

AS for using a grant writer - don't! It is a waste of money for this process. The grant was set-up to allow you to have a chance without hiring a grant writer. They want the money to get to where it belongs. Use those around you who have benn awarded a grant. Your FEMA rep should be hosting workshops - ours goes around the state with the state fire marshals office and the US Forest Service speaking about the grant opprotunities and how to apply. If yours are not doing this, you need to get on them and your states chief's assn. to start doing so.

[Ira Brown]

I agree that using a grant writer is a waste of money...money that some of us don't have in the first place. Before I joined this department I had never written a grant before and my department had never applied for one. Research the rules and spell your needs out according to them...no smoke and mirrors. In the past four years since I decided to take the challenge to write the grants we've gotten four grants through the U.S. Forestry Service's Volunteer Assistance Program ($7,000.00 total), an AED, funded for $65K in the 2001 Fire Grant, and two weeks ago I received the 1199A Direct Deposit email and the 6 questions today via phone call at work. My 2003 Fire Grant was for $192K. You may wonder how we can afford the 10% matching. Phone calls, letters, and advertising your department to the people in your coverage area. My department is strictly rural with no incorporated areas with an average population of 4500. If I can write a successful grant then just about anyone can; however, it does take a lot of work. It can't be said enough though, that you have to follow the rules explicitly and apply them to your department. Although I have not written grants for other departments, I have volunteered and helped some of our mutual aid departments with theirs. I would be more than willing to help them again because after all, their receiving a grant (one did last year) helps us when we call on them for aid.

[CRRFIRE]

We are like you - 4500-5000 in a residential rural community. I did not write grants until 3-4 years ago. We have been awarded $45K last year from Fire Act and $15K each this year & last year, $11.5 K the year before and I don't remember what the first. I also am waiting on year 4 from the National Fire Plan which will give us $147K on top of the $490K we have already been awarded for the first 3 years of the project.

We budget for our matches, and the matches for the NFP come from in-kind and partnerships with the hommeowners assn.

I too have offered to help any RFD in the state that wants it. This year I helped 2. I also helped 1 in MT when I found out they did not even know about the Fire Act. Their problem is they are so rural they will have problems with the match. Their budget is only $5K a year. Their 1st line engine is a 1947 and is a small 2-seater that carrys maybe 250 gal. They have almost no PPE.

[theonlychief]

Through June?????. How in sam heck can a Dept. budget for a potential grant when they don't know if their grant is going through or not. The next problem is getting your vendors to hold their prices. Example: Our dept applied for a brush truck in 2002 (denied of course).Cost of rig was $ 92,000.00 total. Our share being $ 9,200.00. We applied again this year 2003, for the same identical rig Cost of truck jumped up one year later to $106,000.00. Our share now being $10,600.00. The cost of the rig went up roughly 15%. If I have to wait untill June of 2004, and should the price jump again 15%, our share now will be the $ 10,600.00 plus the price increase of $15,900.00 totaling roughly $ 26,500.00 You just don't get the vendors to hold their prices for FEMA. This is not fair to the small under funded Department's. There must be a better way.

[Ira Brown]

CRRFIRE...what is the National Fire Plan?

[EastKyFF]

If you think the process is so damn unfair, quit applying. Just you try to administer $750 million in grants--sift through 15,000 apps and start making awards in less than three months after the deadline.

You know why you probably got shanked on a brush truck? Because no more than 25% of the funds can go to apparatus, no matter how good they think the unfunded ideas are. Add to that, what the hell kind of brush truck costs $92,000? This is not a toy-funding program. This is for basic needs. I tried for a sexy new light rescue last year and got a Dear John the first day. Why? Not a basic need. This year, I put in to replace our worn out turnouts, retrofit our SCBA's with integrated PASS alarms, and upgrade training materials. Guess what? Got it.

You can't count grant chickens before they hatch. And if you're buying a truck with the grant, how's that interfere with your budget if you don't know if you've got it yet? Is waiting so tough that you'd just as soon take yourself out of the running? Didn't think so.

[waterboy1]

Dateline: March 31st, 2004
Well we have 1 more day to get our 2004 application into Fema and we still have not heard anything from the grant gods on last years app. Lets see, should we apply for the same equip. as last year or go for some other much needed equip. Last year we priortized our needs and requested for the most needed.

If the 2003 process takes until June of 2004, I can see a lot of depts with this problem.

Good Luck and congrats to the winners

[Bones42]

If the 2003 process takes until June of 2004, I can see a lot of depts with this problem.

Nah, this is FEMA's way of telling us there is no 2004 program. They will claim that since 2003 took so long into 2004, 2004 will be skipped and move on to 2005.