Grant Writer Focuses on Local Economic Woes to Win FEMA Money
New Bethlehem, Pennsylvania (pop. 1,000) -- The New Bethlehem Fire Company successfully applied for a FIRE Act grant in 2003. The total amount of the grant was $127,941, which included $12,000 for a T3MAX, which the department put into service in September. Ed Goth, who is the department’s safety officer and an insurance agent by trade, worked with Chief Barry Fox and Asst. Chief Marlin Price to write the grant application.
Demonstrating need: “Our department is rural, and lots of businesses in the area have moved out or have closed. Within the last five to ten years, our community has been heavily impacted by the loss of revenues from coal mines closing, and a large furniture manufacturer that has also closed its doors. In April of 2001, a significant fire took out five businesses in the downtown area of New Bethlehem that together had a fairly significant assessed valuation. A later fire took out another business. So overall, we’ve had a loss of tax revenue from the borough side and a loss of potential fundraising revenues through businesses.”
Justifying TIs: “We’ve been working on thermal imager fundraising since our April 2001 fire, because we understand thermal imagers are needed tools. We explained in the FEMA grant application how a thermal imager might have helped in our efforts with the fires we’ve had in the past few years. We laid out the statistics for the grant application: our loss of business tax revenues, our loss of the coal industry, and why we don ‘t have money in the budget to purchase items we need.”
Keys to success: “I visit a lot of fire departments in the area as part of my profession, and I encourage them to apply for the FEMA grant. We started by finding a need in our department, then painting a picture so that the person reading the narrative can see clearly how the money will be used.”