Brentwood, Calif., August 24, 2012 – This morning the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) notified the East Contra Costa Fire Protection District (ECCFPD) that it has been awarded over $7.8 million over two years to restore staffing levels and reopen closed fire stations. Last month FEMA had notified ECCFPD that its grant application had not been accepted due to significant competition for the limited funds. However, additional funding has recently become available for this award cycle.
ECCFPD Board President Kevin Romick has called for a special board meeting on Wednesday, August 29, 2012 at 6:30 p.m. as the grant must be accepted by the ECCFPD Board of Directors before any funds are distributed by FEMA.
“The grant will provide additional safety to our communities and our firefighting personnel,” said Board President Kevin Romick. “We will be able to provide fire services without the strong impact on neighboring agencies,” Romick added.
“I am very pleased with the news of receiving these badly needed resources,” Fire Chief Hugh Henderson said. “ECCFPD always strives to provide the best services possible regardless of available resources. Since the station closures in July, we have been doing our best to respond to over 18 calls daily and cover 249 square miles of territory. This grant could increase our resources, reduce our dependence on outside agencies, and most importantly, improve our service to the community.
“Although, admittedly, this grant would be a short-term fix for ECCFPD; it provides the District time to continue developing a long-term plan,” Henderson said. The District has applied for the SAFER grants in the past several years without any awards.
Background
The ECCFPD provides firefighting personnel and emergency medical service (basic life support) to the residents and businesses in Brentwood, Oakley, Discovery Bay, Bethel Island, Knightsen, Byron, Marsh Creek, and Morgan Territory. We protect approximately 249 square miles, over 105,000 residents, and respond to over 6,200 calls for service a year.
13 comments
Wow! This is good news. Thank you for your early report.
Great news! This came out of no where!
Awesome!
It’s not entirely out of nowhere and it comes with major strings. I’m not overly excited because it won’t fix the underlying revenue problem. It simply pushes the pain we are experiencing now a couple more years down the road.
You have to dig into the requirements of the grant for the details, but Vince Wells is aware of the gotchas. The problem here is I don’t think the board “gets it”.
Not a done deal here.
ConFire got one of these last year. The issues are explained if you dig for them and it should be noted that ConFire has not heavily used that money to this point for the very concerns I’m referring to.
@Bob I was thinking the same thing, Grants always come with requirements as to how the money can be used. While this is great news,we have to find out exactly what it can be used for. It may not be the blessing that we think. BUT again, any money is helpful
We need to get out fire board settled down and start working toward a long term solution. And we all know that its a tax.
Used improperly 2 years down the road when the grant money runs out you could lose all of your most experienced guys. That puts the department at a lower overall preparedness level, IMO.
There’s a reason ConFire hasn’t heavily dipped into the money they got.
I’d say first thing is stop this silly control freak appointment charade and get to an independent special district as LAFCO intended when the JPA was formed. These people are ignoring what they agreed to. The excuse of no money is no longer available to them.
Also–anyone what to bet the first thing we hear about is reopening the downtown station in Brentwood? I am not trying to be a witch but we all know that will be proposed immediately.
Brentwood will be the first station re-opened when it should be Bethel Island or Knightsen based on response times. The Chief and his staff recommended an “outward in” response model instead of inside out. These 15-minute response times to Bethel Island and Knightsen incidents is unacceptable. Brentwood calls (even with a closed station) are half that.
And now we know why Brentwood City Council decided to push it’s board appointments back til February. They wanted power when these decisions would be made.
See, they didn’t need the $197 parcel tax, they got their money and tried to pull a fast one on the residents of East County,
You are way too funny and not worth the time and energy for a response. Just keep proving how uninformed and uneducated you are.
@ Jill.
You spewed; “See, they didn’t need the $197 parcel tax, they got their money and tried to pull a fast one on the residents of East County,”
“A fast one”? “They got their money”?
You really are clueless.
Just received a call… it appears the Grants were written a few years back by the men in the field urging the District to apply. Management was saying “no”. When money ran out, they finally submitted it.
I am 50-50 on whether or not to accept the grant or not based on the variables in the requirements.
There’s a lot of misinformation and assumptionions on this forum. People need to take a step back and wait for the facts to unfold.
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