Fire Act Grant 2005 Notes

EMS agencies not affiliated with a hospital or part of a fire department may now apply.

The other change is the segregation of the Fire Prevention and Safety Grant (FP&S) program from the AFG. We will have a separate application period devoted solely to Fire Prevention and Safety. It is our intention to have this application period in the Fall of 2005 which would be open to fire departments as in the past. Please monitor the AFG website (http://www.firegrantsupport.com) for updated information on this program. Non-affiliated EMS organizations will not be eligible for the FP&S program

Applicants must be certain that they DO NOT change the footprint of the building. The limit is $100k per station as it is for other modifications. It may also subject to a historical review, depending on the structure.

The program is funded at $650 million in FY 2005.

This competitive grant program is available to local fire departments of a State, tribal community, or territory. Those fire departments that provide emergency medical and rescue services are also eligible.

A fire department is defined as an agency or organization that has a formally recognized arrangement with a State, local or tribal authority (city, county, parish, fire district, township, town, or other governing body) to provide fire suppression to a population within a fixed geographical area.

A “non-affiliated EMS organization” is defined as a public or private nonprofit emergency medical services organization that is not affiliated with a hospital and does not serve a geographic area in which DHS finds that emergency medical services are adequately provided by a fire department. Included in this category of eligibility would be rescue squads that are adequately trained to provide emergency medical services to the community that they serve.

Previous grant award winners may apply for another grant, however, if they have not met the grant management requirements of their grant they may not be awarded. No department will be awarded a second vehicle.

Funds are distributed on the basis of percentage of population protected by each type of FD. According to the NFPA Profile, 55% of the U.S. population protected by volunteer and combination fire departments; 45% by career fire departments.

Rescue squads are eligible only if they provide EMS and are non-profit and are not affiliated with a hospital or a fire department.

Make the point that this grant program is designed to fund the essential basic needs of local fire departments, and those applicants that focus on essential basic needs stand the best chance for success.

Local fire departments are those that protect urban, suburban, and rural communities.

They may be all career, all volunteer, paid/on-call, or have a combination of volunteer and career members.

Local fire departments may submit grant requests by completing an online application during the application period. Details on the online application appear later in this presentation.

In 2005 Fire Prevention and Safety will be a separate application, scheduled for September.

Two Funding Streams

Only ONE application in ONE program area

Operations and Firefighter Safety includes five activities. Advise the participants that each of these activities will be discussed in detail later in this presentation.

The Instructor should emphasize that the focus of the program is to meet the essential basic needs of departments within each of the eligible activities. Also emphasize that the application is designed to provide all applicants with an equal opportunity to receive a grant because the priorities of the program reflect the unique needs of urban, suburban, and rural communities.

Urge the applicants to read the Program Guidance and to match their requests to the stated priorities as outlined in this document.

NEW this year: The first significant change is the allowance of nonaffiliated EMS organizations (i.e., non-fire based EMS organizations not affiliated with a hospital) as eligible applicants for as much as two (2) percent of the appropriated funds.

Non-affiliated EMS organizations are eligible this year, and have their own “funding stream”, with two programs,
EMS Operations and Safety
EMS Vehicle Acquisition

Funding for these organizations is limited to no more than 2% percent of the appropriated amount. Specific rating criteria and priorities for each of the grant categories are provided below following the descriptions of this year’s eligible programs. The rating criteria, in conjunction with the program description, will provide you with an understanding of what information we are seeking about your proposed projects.

We must spend no less than 3.5% of the appropriated funds on EMS projects, including funds that go to non-affiliated EMS organizations.

Activities in EMS Ops include:

New vehicles purchased with AFG program funds must be compliant with current NFPA 1901 or 1906 standards. Used apparatus must be compliant with NFPA 1901 or 1906 standards for the year the vehicle was manufactured. Refurbished apparatus must meet NFPA 1912 standards. Applicants may apply for only one vehicle per year under this program. Previous vehicle awardees will not be awarded another vehicle.

Grant database is used to search for duplicate applications. Remind that a duplicate application even unintentional will disqualify organization.

EMS Funding

A minimum of $22,750,000 must go to EMS activities but not more than $13,000,000 may go to EMS organizations.

Only 25% of $13,000,000 may go for EMS vehicles. This amounts to $3,250,000.

Grant Appropriation $650,000,000

Vehicles are limited to 25% so no more than combination of the vehicle amounts above.

Fire or EMS Operations and Safety Program

Remember that modifications of this type may NOT change the building footprint. Construction is not permitted.

No modifications other than the following are eligible:

Maximum allowable is $100,000 per station.

Renovations are limited to $10,000 and must accompany an activity that requires some renovation to achieve. No changes to the building profile.

EMS equipment priority is on BASIC EMT; paramedic equipment is a lower priority. First responder is a lower priority.

EMS Vehicle Priorities

Priority One

Eligible apparatus available to nonaffiliated EMS organizations under this program include, but are not limited to ambulances, transport units and rescue squads. Small specialty access vehicles such as ATVs, snowmobiles, and gators are not considered vehicles; rather, they are considered “equipment” and should be applied for under the EMS equipment activity under the EMS Operations and Safety Program. You may apply for only one vehicle per year. Applications requesting more than one vehicle will be deemed ineligible. Vehicles must meet the GSA KKK-A-1822E standard. Used vehicles must meet the standard for the year they were manufactured.

Unlike fire, EMS vehicles must be requested without equipment. No equipment will be funded with a vehicle for an EMS organization.

Priority One

The Apparatus Priority Matrix shows the priority for grant consideration by communities served for FY 2004.

In FY 2004, all types of pumping apparatus were consolidated into the pumper category, and apparatus with water tanks that have a capacity greater than 1,250 gallons will be considered a tanker. Quints with aerial devices less than 76 feet will be considered pumpers (that happens to have a ladder), those 76 feet or greater will be considered aerial vehicles.

Applicants that own few or no vehicles of the type requested will receive priority. Next priority will be applicants that have an aged fleet of firefighting vehicles with old high mileage vehicles.

Departments with fewer than 16 vehicles will be required to provide complete information about each—year of manufacture, mileage, type, etc. For departments with 16 or more, the oldest and newest of each type must be described in the application.

Only equipment specified by the NFPA standard can be purchased with the apparatus. It should be identified in the grant request.

Vehicles are the most competitive program. More than 32,000 have been requested but fewer than 2,800 have been purchased because the rules provide that no more than 25% of grant funding may be used for vehicles.
75% of the non-paneled applications are vehicle requests.

In 2004 grant funds will be awarded for about 1,000 vehicles
In 2003 grants funded about 1,340 vehicles.
In 2002 about 300 were funded and in 2001 about 100 were funded.

About 7,000 requests for vehicles are received each year.

Fire Grant Program Areas

A fire department can apply for assistance for its emergency medical services (EMS) unit provided the unit falls organizationally under the auspices of the fire department

No Fire Prevention request this spring.

Questions Regarding Eligibility of Applicants?

Eligible applicants for the Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program are limited to fire departments and nonaffiliated EMS organizations of a State. A “fire department of a State” is defined as an agency or organization that has a formally recognized arrangement with a State, territory, local, or tribal authority (city, county, parish, fire district, township, town, or other governing body) to provide fire suppression to a population within a fixed geographical area. A “nonaffiliated EMS organization” is defined as a public or private nonprofit emergency medical services organization that is not affiliated with a hospital and does not serve a geographic area in which DHS finds that emergency medical services are adequately provided by a fire department. In making the determination regarding “adequately provided,” DHS will conclude that any nonaffiliated EMS organization would be eligible under this definition if the organization is operational at the time of application and in good standing with the community, and certifies that their geographic service area is not covered by a fire department. Included in this category of eligibility would be rescue squads, dive teams and urban search and rescue teams that are also adequately trained to provide emergency medical services to the community that they serve.

A municipality or fire district may submit an application on behalf of a fire department when the fire department lacks the legal status to do so, e.g., when the fire department falls within the auspices of the municipality or district. When a municipality or fire district submits an application on behalf of a fire department, the fire department is precluded from submitting an additional application on its own. The Alaska Village Initiative, a nonprofit organization incorporated in the State of Alaska, shall also be considered eligible for purposes of receiving assistance under this program on behalf of Alaska Native villages. Each eligible applicant is limited to one application per program year.

For the purposes of this program, we consider that two or more separate fire departments or nonaffiliated EMS organizations that share facilities are tantamount to being one organization.

Regional Projects

An applicant, whether a fire department or a nonaffiliated EMS organization, may act as a “host applicant” and apply for large-scale or regional projects on behalf of itself and any number of neighboring organizations.

Regional Applications

In order to apply for such a project, the applicant must be eligible, i.e., either a fire department or a non-affiliated EMS organization (a county or a city could not apply for the project) and agree, if awarded, to be responsible for the all aspects of the grant, such as accountability for the assets and all reporting requirements.

All the benfiting departments can also apply separately (individually) independently for equipment NOT included in the regional grant application. For example, a regional radio program of 5 departments wouldn’t preclude the five departments from applying for training or PPE.

The host applicant should use their statistics when completing the “Characteristics” screens, however, show the larger impact statistics indicating the impact of the proposal in their narrative.

State Technical Review of CBRNE Applications

State’s homeland security office will review CBRNE applications.

If a State representative determines that an application is either inconsistent with the State plan or duplicates the State’s assistance, that portion of the AFG application will not be funded.

Following our preliminary determination of award (i.e., after the panel process is complete) but prior to award, we will involve the State’s homeland security office in a technical review of any application that is seeking equipment and/or training for preparation for incidents involving CBRNE. Each State will be asked to provide the AFG program office with a representative to carry out this technical review of applications from the State that include CBRNE-related requests and that have been rated as fundable by the peer review panelists. During the technical review, the State representative will attest to and certify that any CBRNE-related requests are consistent with the State’s homeland security plan and that the requests do not duplicate assistance already provided or about to be provided. If a State representative determines that an application is either inconsistent with the State plan or duplicates the State’s assistance, that portion of the AFG application will not be funded.

Application Evaluation Phase One

Answers to activity-specific questions are used in the initial assessment.

Applications with a clearly-defined project and answers to questions consistent with grant priorities have a better chance of reaching the competitive range.

We will rank all complete and eligible applications based on the substance of your application relative to the established program priorities for the type of community served. We determine this relationship from your answers to the activity-specific questions.

Your answers to these questions are the primary bases upon which we will determine whether your application warrants further evaluation. Applicants whose answers indicate that their project is consistent with our established priorities (as outlined below) will have a better chance of reaching the competitive range and the second level of review than those applicants whose projects do not reflect the established priorities. Applicants that falsify their applications or misrepresent their organizations in any material manner will have their applications deemed ineligible by the AFG program office and referred to the Office of Inspector General for further action as appropriate.

Grant applications totaling 200% of the available funding are deemed to be in the “competitive” range. The computer does not “eliminate” or “kick out” applications. It simply scores applications on the basis of the answers provided.

We expect to receive 25,000 applications in 2005. About 15,000 will go to panel for review and about 8,000 will receive grants.

75% of the non-paneled applications are vehicle requests.

Application Evaluation Phase Two

Highest scoring applications in Phase One qualify for the “competitive range.”
Applications from “competitive range” will be evaluated by panel of at least three peer reviewers.
Panelists review:
Project narrative
Answers to the general questions
Activity-specific questions.

Applications that score the highest will be determined to be in the “competitive range.” The “competitive range” is 200% of the available funding. A panel of at least three technical evaluation specialists will further evaluate the applications that are in the competitive range, i.e., the highest-ranked applications. These panelists will evaluate the application using your project narrative along with the answers to the general questions and the activity-specific questions.

When reviewing your application, the panelists will use your narrative and all the information in your application to determine the worthiness of your request for an award. During the panel review process, the panelists will provide a subjective but qualitative judgment on the merits of each request.

Stick to The Priorities

The most successful applicants stick to the AFG priorities.

Requests for items in multiple activities will be scored separately and separate scores prorated.

Scores will be prorated based on the relative cost of each activity.

Federal Share of Grant Based on Population Served

Maximum Federal Share: $1,000,000
Populations less than 500,000

Maximum Federal Share: $1,750,000
Populations from 500,000 to 1 Million

Maximum Federal Share: $2,750,000
Populations greater than 1 Million

The maximum Federal share available for any one applicant is dependent upon the size of the population served.

If the department serves more than 1 million, the project could be $3,437,500, federal share $2,750,000.

If the department serves between 500,000 and 1 million the project could be $2,187,500.

If the department serves less than 500,000 the project could be $1,250,000 if they make a 20% match.

If the department serves less than 50,000 but more than 20,000 the maximum project will be $1,111,110.

If the department serves fewer than 20,000 the maximum project will be $1,052,632.

The matching funds can be applied at any time during the period of performance; matching funds do not have to be in hand when the application is submitted or when the grant is awarded. However, a commitment to apply the match must be made at the time of award.

The local match must be in cash (new money). In-kind services are not allowed as part of the match.

Matching Funds Based on Population Served - Match

Organizations serving populations of 20,000 or less make only a 5% funding match.
Organizations serving populations from 20,000 to 50,000 make only a 10% funding match.
Organizations serving populations greater than 50,000 make a 20% match.

Match must be made in cash. Department does not need to have the match when they apply but will be asked when award is made if they will make the match. Match can be from any source other than another federal grant.

Emphasize these matches are lower for everyone than in previous years.

Fire departments that serve a population of 50,000 or more are required to provide at least a 20% match of the amount of the project. For example, if a department is awarded a grant for a program of $100,000, it would be required to fund $20,000 of the grant, and the federal share would be $80,000.

Fire departments that serve populations of less than 50,000 but more than 20,000 make a 10% match.

Fire departments that serve a population of less than 20,000 make only a 5% match.

A fire department serving less that 50,000 people can receive up to $1,000,000 in federal funds for a project of $1,111,110.

A fire department serving less than 20,000 people can receive up to $1,000,000 in federal funds for a project of $1,052,632.

Never Forget 343 Gave It All On 9-11-2001

2005 Assistance to Firefighter Grant Program (AFGP)

Major Changes In 2005