State Fire Grant Case Study

During an impromptu conference call with the state fire marshal, county officials learned all but one of Wayne County’s fire departments received more than $700,000 in funding to purchase new radios.
County commissioners Jim Carmichael, Ann Obrecht and Scott Wiggam were meeting Wednesday with Joe Villegas, director of the Emergency Management Agency who spearheaded the grant application, and he happened to mention fire departments were in the process of being notified about receiving the grant, which will help offset the costs of purchasing new, more expensive radios, as the county transitions to the state’s Multi-Agency Radio Communications System.
Carmichael, who served in the Ohio House of Representatives with Larry Flowers, now the state fire marshal, called his friend to find out from the horse’s
mouth about the grants.
Notification letters went out Friday, Flowers said. “Everybody got what they requested,” though Wooster, because of its population, did not qualify for the grant.
“The individual departments did a nice job with their applications,” Flowers said. Not many follow-up calls needed to be made, and all of the fire departments were up to date with their reporting of fires to the state, which can disqualify a department.
“The big benchmark for me was the countywide effort,” Flowers said. “Some counties had 13 of 14 (departments on board), and they did not get funded because it was not 100 percent.”
Jeromesville in Ashland County was also part of the grant. Its fire department provides service to a portion of Plain Township Wayne County.
Obrecht said Villegas worked with all the departments and coordinated the application process.
“Tell, Joe, he did a good job pulling everything together,” Flowers said.
Flowers worked with Gov. John Kasich’s office to get money for training and small equipment grants and to get grants to help fire departments buy MARCS radio equipment. The state was able to fund seven counties this cycle with $3 million made available in the budget. There was a $3 million award in 2015, and there will be another one in 2017.
After Rittman Fire Chief Don Sweigert received his notification, he fired off an email to Flowers, which the state fire marshal appreciated. In it, Sweigert expressed gratitude for the efforts Flowers and his staff have made at the state level “to find financial benefits for small fire departments like Rittman.
When county officials were looking to upgrade its public safety communications system, Carmichael called Flowers to come to town and explain the benefits of MARCS. When he was here in July, Flowers touted the need for everyone to work together and be part of the application.
Though Wooster fire officials new at the outset they likely would not qualify, they still participated in the application process to show all departments were on board, Assistant Chief Nathan Murphy said. The grant is to help smaller departments, and the population cutoff is 25,000. Wooster has more than 26,000 residents.
“We worked with everyone, like we do with many things for the fire departments, to show we support one another,” Murphy said.
Wayne County fire officials showed the state fire marshal in their application, “We are unified, we want to improve and we’re doing it together,” Sweigert said.
Each department will receive $50,000 for MARCS radios. Rittman has about 30 older radios, some 15 years old. The grant will pay for 16. “It doesn’t replace all radios, but it’s a heck of a start,” Sweigert said. With much of the county moving to MARCS, the chief expressed concern he wouldn’t be able to communicate with half of Wayne County. Rittman just doesn’t have it in its budget to purchase all the radios.
Because the grant does not cover all costs, Wooster Fire Chief Barry Saley has been working on the federal Assistance to Firefighters Grant with all of the departments for additional funding, Murphy added.
While the county was waiting to hear news about award of the grant, Carmichael called Flowers to inquire about the status. “He told me, ‘Don’t worry, Jim, it’s almost in the bank.’” Well, the word “almost” did worry Carmichael, and he was glad to hear the positive news
Wednesday.
Flowers said he would like to come to Wayne County again and make a presentation of the grant award.