The awarding has begun!

Congratulations to the following Fire Departments that have received federal assistance to be able to purchase much needed equipment and vehicles.

Ohio City VFD, Ohio – $44,150.00 for operations and safety

With this funding, Ohio City VFD will be able to purchase a much needed fixed Compressor/Fill station system that will allow the firefighters to properly and most importantly, safely fill their air bottles. This is also the first ever application as well as award through the AFG program to this fire department. Hopefully this is the beginning of a beautiful partnership with the AFG Program for this department.

Hunstville FD, Ohio – $80,150.00 for operations and Safety

For the 5th time in (7) years, Huntsville FD has been able to secure much needed funding to be able to purchase much needed equipment to replace their current obsolete equipment. With this current award, Huntsville will be able to purchase (2) new state of the art AHA approved 12 Lead Heart Monitors to help improve the survival of their patients in the field. Way to Go Chief!

Wren VFD, Ohio – $32,960.00 – Operations and Safety

Wren VFD was fortunate to receive funding in 2012 from the AFG to purchase much needed equipment to help enhance the safety of their firefighters, then again, this year, Wren VFD was chosen for award to be able to purchase Vehicle Extrication Tools (JAWS) to enhance the firefighters capabilities in the extrication field. Congrats Guys!

Lowell VFD, Indiana – $12,720.00 – Operations and Safety

It started in 2012 with the award of the Fire Prevention Grant that helped Lowell VFD enhance their fire prevention program and outreach to the community. No sooner did that grant get administered when they were notified that they would be receiving funding this year yet again through the AFG to purchase new Turnout Gear to fully don (4) current firefighters that had non-compliant gear and (1) new member that did not have any gear. We to go Staff!

Middle Point FD, Ohio – $230,650.00 – Vehicle Acquisition

This one is a once in a lifetime opportunity! It took (6) tries to get this one but you finally did it. Way to go. Persistence, faith and trust really paid off on this one. With this funding, Middle Point FD will finally be able to replace their (28) year old tender that was draining funds to keep it in service. Kudos to Middle Point FD!

We have a few very happy fire departments this year so far.

Kelley’s Island VFD, Southern Highland Joint Fire District and Freeport Community Volunteer Fire Department in Ohio.

Kelley’s Island VFD – First AFG award ever and they have been very fortunate to receive some much needed PPE and Equipment that for a fire department that provides services for an Island is crucial.

They will be able to purchase new turnout gear as well as a washer/dryer to keep their gear in good condition for many years. They will also be able to purchase new SCBA airpacks as well as a Fit Tester to make sure that they have properly fitted face pieces for each individual firefighter.

The total cost of this grant came to $113,900.00. Congratulations to Kelley’s Island VFD.

Southern Highland Joint Fire District – Will have the ability to properly monitor their EMS patients with the purchase of two (2) new heart monitors that were much needed. Each EMS unit will now have the proper equipment to monitor these heart patients. This much needed equipment will help to enhance the abilities of the fire department when responding to calls.

Congratulations on the award! Total cost of this project and award comes to $52,600.00

Freeport Community Volunteer Fire Department– Although this grant may seem small, to this fire department that depends on community support, this is huge. With the award of this grant, Freeport VFD will be able to purchase much needed rescue equipment and hand tools that they would not have been able to purchase on their own. This equipment will only enhance their abilities and they greatly thank the AFG for this opportunity.

The total cost of this grant comes to $8,200.00 but every penny is much appreciated. Congratulations Freeport!

We are very proud to announce that a few of our clients have received SAFER 2012 funding for much needed positions.

Teays Valley VFD – Located in Scott Depot, West Virginia, this all volunteer fire department has received funding from the SAFER 2012 Grant to completely overhaul their fire department. Once this planning is put in place, they will have been transformed from an all volunteer fire department to a combination part-time and paid on call fire department. This funding was much needed and could not come at a better time. Everything seems to be falling into place for this very fortunate fire department. The total amount of the grant came to $459,906.00 to staff the fire department 24 hours a day with two (2) full time positions per day by part time personnel. 

Congratulations Teays Valley VFD, or should I say Teays Valley FD now! Your hard work and dedication to this process has proven well worth it!

Northeast Champaign – Located in North Lewisburg, Ohio, will be able to re-fill a position that was not able to be filled due to attrition. The amount of this award came to $73,018.00 to re-fill (1) Full Time Position.

Congratulations Northeast Champaign County Fire District on this award as well as all their help in obtaining the necessary information needed to put this grant application together!

City of Bedford Division of Fire – It took a few years, but Bedford was finally able to secure funding through the SAFER 2012 Grant to re-fill (2) Full Time Firefighter positions after they had been vacated and not able to be filled due to attrition. This grant was much needed and the City as a whole is excited about this award. “Bringing our staffing level back up to what is needed will greatly help the community and our public safety as a whole.” stated Shawn Solar of Bedford Fire Department. The total award package for this grant came to $359,036.00 to re-fill (2) Full Time Firefighter positions.

Congratulations Beford. Thanks for hanging in there and a special thanks to Shawn Solar for all his help in obtaining this funding for his fire department.

Gatchell Grant Resources, LLC has been busy trying to recruit able bodied individuals to take on the grueling task of grant writers and that are just as dedicated as Vera and Didi. This is not a job for everyone as many people will tell you.

We are proud to say the we have welcomed two (2) new members of our team, Donna Riggs and Amy McKinney. Although new to this team, they have shown their dedication to this company and we welcome them!

We hope that this year will bring our clients great success with our help. We are currently training our new members and have been training them; Donna Riggs for over (1) one year now and Amy McKinney for the last (6) months.

As in all fields of service, training is a continuing process and we will continue to train them until they are proficient in helping our clients.

With that being said, rest assured that all grants written by these new members will be reviewed by either Vera or Didi before being subbmitted for accuracy.

So when you have the chance, please take the time to welcome our newest members, their contact info has been added to our Contact Us Page.

Canton Township Fire Department located in Canton Township, Stark County, Ohio was recently awarded an AFG Operations and Safety Grant for PPE and Communications Equipment for 3/4 of a million dollars.

This Grant will help to replace aged, old and obsolete communications equipment and PPE. This grant is one of many grants that Canton Township has been fortunate to receive in the passed few years. These grants include: Training Trailer (the only one of its kind in the county and region) in 2009 AFG Grant for $250,000; (4) LifePak 15 Monitors in the amout of $160,000 in 2010 AFG Grant; 2010 SAFER Grant to increase staffing levels to meet compliance with NFPA standards for $250,000; and now in 2011 AFG Grant for Communications Equipment and PPE in the amount of $758,000.00

Congratulations to the Canton Township Fire Department for their trust in our company for assisting them in accomplishing their goals.

The Staff here at Gatchell Grant Resources value our clients and take our job seriously. This is why we took great initiative to get to the bottom of the 2011 Denial Letters that were sent out a few weeks ago.

We took the “bull by the horns” and spoke directly with a trusted representative from FEMA and disclosed some discrepencies that we feel were reasons as to why some of the grants were denied. I was assured by this agent that they were not aware of this dilemna and would look into it. They have kept to their word.

Today, we received a phone call from this representive and were updated as to the status. This person went so far as to hold a teleconference with the supervisor as well as the director and also reviewed the computer scoring techniques that were utilized to make sure that the application was not faulty.

There is Good News and there is Bad News

Good News….There ware no technical errors to the application…..More Good News….We were informed that the grants that we HAD written, were good grants. They were filled out correctly and written well but due to the lack of funding and criteria could not be funded for the 2011 fiscal year. This was in large part due to the lack of funds and had nothing to do with any training requirements or regional grants, it was strictly lack of funding.

Ok, now the Bad News…There is nothing more we can do but to re-evaluate our applications, review the guidlines and decide whether the application should be resubmitted again for 2012.

Again, due to lack of funding and large amounts of applications with older equipment and vehicles, applications that did not fair in the top 10% of the scoring unfortunately were denied.

We hope that this information was helpful in understanding what happened.

The Staff and Gatchell Grant Resources again humbley thanks our dedicated clients for their continued trust and belief in our company. We strive to provide the best possible services to our clients.

AFG SAFER Grant opens Monday January 30, 2012……..

When you hear USDA, people tend to shy away. Not Gatchell Grant Resources, LLC.

We have been utilizing this grant/loan application process for the past 10 years to help departments achieve their goals. Some of the items or equipment we have helped to obtain are fire trucks, road department trucks, buildings, as well as other various equipment.

As of the new fiscal year which started October 1, 2011, the interest rate is at an astronomical low at 3.75%. This according to our contact at USDA is the lowest it has ever been historically. This is the time to jumo on this program.

The grant part of this process all depends on the eliigibility of the entity applying as well as other key factors that are requested.

The loan part of the application can be approved and in your possession within 3-6 months of applying.

If there is something that your department might be interested in, please do not hesitate to contact our office for more information in this application process.

Again, this application has been very helpful to numerous departments and entities but yet is still a very underutilized application due to questions and lack of knowledge of this process.

Gatchell Grant Resources, LLC encourages anyone interested in a project to become more knowledgable in the process before they turn down this avenue of funding. This can be done by either calling the USDA Office yourself or by calling us with any questions.

We look forward to helping out those who want to be helped.