HARRISON – Two separate grant writing seminars and suggestions from three firefighters and a librarian were all Fire Chief Tony Hazelton needed to secure a $49,581 grant to help his department.
“It’s been a learning a process,” Hazelton said Monday. “I’ve been to a grant writing seminar twice and found that I wasn’t asking for enough.
“I asked people at the seminars what I was doing wrong and they said I wasn’t asking for total package,” he said. “I needed to ask for more. So I did.”
He received the grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, a division of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Hazelton said he will purchase six sets of turnout gear, self-contained breathing apparatus for six and an air compressor to fill those bottles.
This is the third year Hazelton applied for a grant. He said four people chipped in with ideas and then he had librarian Diane Jackson of Caswell Public Library read the application.
“The reason for asking Diane was so that I had someone that had nothing to do with fire service read it to make sure she understood what I wanted,” Hazelton said. “Even though fire service people review it, I wanted to make it understandable to the lay person.”
Chipping in with ideas for the grant were assistant fire Chief Ray LaPlante, fire engineer Alan Denison, firefighter and Republican state Rep. Richard Sykes.
The fire department has 34 volunteers, and each has a set of gear.
Hazelton said some of the gear was getting old, and the new gear would go to the newest volunteers.
“I’m very excited about it. I’ll probably apply again,” Hazelton said. “We’d like to get a positive ventilation pressure fan.
“The FEMA grants are really fantastic for the small fire departments,” he added.
So far this year, FEMA has awarded nearly $518 million to more than 6,800 fire departments nationwide in 26 rounds of funding.
In this latest round, $23 million was awarded nationwide and in Maine, fire departments in Durham, Gorham, York and Caribou, along with Harrison, received $449,221.
jsmedley@sunjournal.com
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