The Voice of the Community Since 1909, Serving Moorcroft and Pine Haven, Wyoming
The Voice of the Community Since 1909, Serving Moorcroft and Pine Haven, Wyoming
The Moorcroft Volunteer Fire Department is hoping to secure the help of a grant writer to secure funding for breathing apparatus.
Moorcroft's volunteer fire department has been diligently seeking grant funding to replace the Self Contained Breathing apparatus (SCBs) firefighters wear when they step around and into burning structures and vehicles. The town has spent money straight from the coffers over the last couple of years, buying six units as the department searched for assistance.
About three years ago, the department began applying for federal moneys through the AFG funding, but each application has been rejected, according to Jordan Roberts, volunteer firefighter and spokesman at the Moorcroft Council meeting recently, due to incomplete and ineffective applications.
"[I] and a few others in the department who have been doing this, agree that it's our narrative where we're really struggling with this and there's nobody who knows how to write it," he said.
Subsequently, Roberts answered an email that first landed in the department's inbox when the first application was received by the AFG board. The advertisement is for a grant application writing service and, after the third rejection, he recognized their need for assistance to write an application that will be better received by the funding board.
"I took it upon myself to reach out...because they have higher success rates...statistically, your success rate is 17% without a grant writing service and with a grant writing service, you can get 50-60% so I scheduled a meeting and talked with a grant writer; they felt that we have a very good case...so I asked them to prepare a cost estimate for that...They typically charge $5000, they are offering a 50% discount so the fee to write this grant would be $2500," he said.
Roberts also said that through the grant, if the application is approved, "They ask if you have a grant writing service helping you and if you say yes, they will reimburse up to $1500 for that...so if we don't get it, then we'll be out $2500."
Also, the population of the town allows a possible 95/5% match, "Meaning the fire department or town would be on the hook for five percent of the allocated funds. So, the grant writing service would be on top of that."
Mayor Ben Glenn asked the percentage, if any the application writing service would take from the awarded funds above the $2500 and other pertinent questions, to which the spokesman as of this discussion had no answers.
Upon hearing of the six SCBs the town has already bought, Roberts apologized for not being more proactive with the application, saying, "I think if we would have gone after this grant writing service earlier, we probably could have had double that [six] for under $10,000."
Councilman Petersen asked from where the department plan to take the $2500 for this service and Roberts replied, "I'm not sure... there's a position open for a grant writer and some funding for a grant writer in the town budget... Would the town be interested in using $2500 from that line item to try approaching grants in this fashion as a consultant service rather than an in-house employee?"
Moorcroft's grant application writing position has not been filled and the budgeted funding is approximately $30,000. The position has been advertised with no response for a number of months at this time.
After some conversation, the body chose not to facilitate the department's request to use money from these funds. Rather, Councilman Dale Petersen advised, "You can ask your fire chief to look at your public safety budget to see if you have the money in there...There's a possibility, but I don't think we're at that point tonight."
