Courant Staff Report
Hartford Courant (Connecticut)
Copyright 2007 The Hartford Courant Company
All Rights Reserved
ENFIELD, Conn. — The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency have awarded $385,000 in grants to Enfield Fire District No. 1 for firefighter training and a recruiting drive for more volunteers.
Deputy Chief Paul J. Januszewski said the department is fortunate to have won approval in two different and highly competitive grant programs.
The fire district received a $70,000 grant from the 2006 Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) program, under which the department plans to launch a five-year concentrated effort aimed at recruiting and retaining volunteer firefighters. The effort is likely to benefit all four of the town’s fire departments.
Januszewski said the SAFER grant application was co-written by him and Karen Weseliza, a resident who was instrumental in researching the grant requirements and developing the proposed recruitment and retention program. The SAFER grant is fully funded by the federal government.
The other grant is from the 2006 Assistance to Firefighters Grant program, which funds essential needs of firefighters and fire departments throughout the nation.
The grant program award is for a project totaling $350,120. The FEMA share is 90 percent, or $315,108, and the remaining share is funded by the fire department.
This year’s grant will fund the purchase of a Mobile Live Fire Structural Firefighting Training Unit, which will be based at the Weymouth Road fire station.