2009 Volunteer Fire Assistance Grant

Attention Fire Company Officers:

The application period is now open for a grant made available through Section 10(b)3 of the Cooperative Forestry Assistance Act of 1978 (Volunteer Fire Assistance). All applications must be electronically submitted or received in Harrisburg by 4:00 pm on May 14, 2009. Electronic applications can be found at www.grants.dcnr.state.pa.us, DCNR's E-Grants website. Paper applications are available upon request only, as we are strongly encouraging applicants to use the eGrants system. Electronic applications will receive priority over paper applications during the evaluation process. If you use a paper application, please maintain a copy for your records.

Section 10(b)3 of the Cooperative Forestry Assistance Act of 1978, as amended by the Forest Stewardship Act of 1990, authorizes and directs the Secretary of Agriculture to provide financial, technical and other assistance to state foresters or other appropriate officials in cooperative efforts to organize, train and equip local forces in rural areas or communities under 10,000 population to prevent, control and suppress fires which threaten human life, livestock, wildlife, crops, pastures, orchards, woodlands, farmsteads, or other improvements in rural areas. The key objectives of this program are to save lives and protect property in unprotected or inadequately protected rural areas. Therefore, the selection of the participating agencies must be based on vulnerability and the adequacy of existing fire protection.

This is a cost-share program. Financial assistance on any project during any fiscal year cannot exceed 50% of the actual expenditures including expenditures of local, public and private nonprofit organizations participating in the agreement.

The maximum grant we will consider for the 2009 program is $7,500 per Fire Company.

Grants received for the 2009 program can be used for the purchase of wildfire suppression equipment, wildfire or structural protective gear, mobile or portable radios, installation of dry hydrants, wildfire prevention and mitigation, or wildfire training. Funds may also be used for certain projects involving the conversion and maintenance of federal excess vehicles received from the Bureau of Forestry and used for fire suppression. A priority will be placed on projects that include the purchase of wildland fire suppression equipment and wildland fire protective gear.

Grants received for the 2009 program cannot be used for the purchase of structural fire equipment, supply hose larger than 2½ inches in diameter, structures, routine maintenance of vehicles not received from the Bureau of Forestry, medical services, ambulance services, fire police equipment and gear, or search and rescue equipment and gear.

Due to high demand and limited funding there is a 5-year waiting period between years a fire company is eligible to receive a grant. However, if a fire company received a $4,000 grant or less in the last 5 years they are eligible for assistance one additional time as long as the 2 year total does not exceed the $7,500 maximum grant . Their 5 year ineligible period will start the year they receive their second grant. This change was made to further assist small VFD's that simply cannot afford a large match.

All items approved for purchase under the 2009 VFA program must be purchased from October 1, 2008 to November 30, 2009 .

Since planning is the key to the efficient and effective use of equipment, personnel and organization, priority will be given to fire companies which have established goals and objectives and have developed plans to meet them.

If you are interested in applying for a cost-share grant, please complete the on-line eGrant application form by the deadline. In completing the form, please be specific in the project scope, stating what the grant will be used for. We cannot act favorably on applications which list only “funds” as the type of assistance requested.

Any designee may be the Project Coordinator but the fire company President, Vice-President, Secretary or Treasurer must certify/sign the application . Application forms certified/signed by other individuals will not be accepted.

If you have any questions or would like to request a paper application, please feel free to contact Charles C. Choplick, Forest Program Specialist, via email at cchoplick@state.pa.usor at 717-787-2925.

Directions on using the eGrant application are contained within the Volunteer Fire Assistance eGrant Application Directions document - Adobe PDF (38 Kb)

Application information and the online form is located within the
DCNR eGrants System.

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