Recently representatives of the Texas Fire Chiefs Association, the Texas State Association of Fire Fighters, the State Firemen's and Fire Marshals' Association, the Texas Commission on Fire Protection and the Texas Forest Service, met on September 28 in College Station to discuss the transition of the Emergency Grant Fund program from the TCFP to the TFS, as mandated by the Texas Legislature in this last legislative session.
The group discussed how the TCFP grant program could be structured in the future to benefit the fire service. Members from the Fire Chiefs Association suggested that funds be used to purchase apparatus that would be dedicated to help support TIFMAS activations. SFFMA feels that the funding program should primarily go to departments with 20 or more paid firefighters since the HB2604 funding increased from $15 million to $30 million two sessions ago.
Everyone present in the meeting agreed to dedicate from $800,000 to the entire grant allotment of $1 million to purchase primarily Type VI or III apparatus. Departments seeking these grants will agree to respond to TIFMAS activations.
The stakeholders realized that $800,000 to $1 million will only go so far when purchasing apparatus, but it is a start.
The fire service could then actively lobby the legislature to provide more funding in the future. It was agreed that using the State grant funds to purchase apparatus used for disaster responses in Texas and beyond would be a worthy program to support. TIFMAS has an excellent reputation and this should encourage legislators to increase funding for this grant program in the years ahead.
There was some discussion of dedicating $200,000 of the grant program to continue funding PPE, SCBA and other items traditionally funded by this program to mute some concerns from departments that depended on this grant program. This is still up for discussion.
The goal is to transfer this program to the TFS by January 2010 as required by the Legislature. In the interim, we want to get the input of our respective organizations (SFFMA, TFCA, and TSAFF). An advisory committee will be set up to develop the rating system on how grants would be awarded and to review the program's effectiveness twice a year to make sure the program is doing what all the stakeholder groups intended.
It was suggested that the advisory committee be comprised of the six members of the present TCFP Funds Allocation Committee and the members that attended the September 28, plus one more for a total of 12 members. The advisory committee will meet later in October to start developing the rating system and overall program.
If you have comments regarding this grant program proposal, please email them to cbarron@sffma.org.
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