By Doug Fletcher,Staff Writer
Fire departments around Maine land millions in federal funding, but Auburn gets nothing.

Auburn Fire Chief Wayne Werts is miffed.

Fire departments around Maine – from Cumberland in the south to Presque Isle in the north – are reaping tens of thousands of dollars in federal grants.

The exception is Auburn.

“It’s the same old thing,” said Werts, whose department has yet to get a penny.

The most recent grants were part of $3 million doled out to 37 fire, rescue and ambulance departments in Maine by the Assistance to Firefighters Program. Tens of millions of dollars have been awarded to the since 2001. The money is administered through the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which has $650 million to give away this year. It had $700 million last year.

A couple of years ago, Lewiston was given enough money to buy a new fire engine. Tiny Waterford landed $172,800 – nearly six times the department’s annual budget – to buy a specialized “burn trailer” for firefighter training.

Durham has landed multiple grants worth nearly $400,000. The money paid for turnout gear, fire-prevention programs and a new firetruck.

No bad feelings

Werts doesn’t begrudge those fire departments the money. He’s happy, in fact, to see them win the grants. It means those departments and their firefighters will be better equipped, better trained and better prepared to fight fires.

But he wonders why Auburn has been snubbed year after year.

“I can’t understand how they prioritize things,” Werts said.

For the past three years he’s been asking for $400,000 to buy and equip a fire engine. The Auburn department is so desperate for the vehicle that Werts this year turned to the City Council for funding.

He says he can’t wait any longer for the program to come to the rescue. He needs to replace an aging engine that now has more than 120,000 miles on it. Actual hours of service – the time that the engine’s pumps and motor and equipment have been in use – are anyone’s guess.

The council agreed to include $100,000 in its budget this year, a down payment on a replacement vehicle. The down payment allows him the ability to design what he needs, seek bids, award a contract and get the engine under construction. When it’s ready for delivery, the city will likely have to float a bond to pay for it, he said.

Now he’s looking at replacing a second engine, Werts said.

“If we could get one of those grants, we might be able to order both engines at once and get a discount,” he said.

But without federal funding, he doesn’t hold much hope of replacing the second vehicle anytime soon. The trucks cost between $350,000 and $600,000 new, depending on their configuration, equipment and purpose.

The city of Auburn has been applying for Assistance to Firefighters Program money since the funding rounds began in 2001, Werts said. Each time he has received an e-mail rejection.

He’s even tried enlisted support from U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud and U.S. Sen. Susan Collins. Each has offered letters of support for the city’s grant applications.

Collins working

If anyone is in a position to wield influence on the grants, it’s Collins. She chairs the Senate Committee on Government Affairs and Homeland Security, which oversees the grant program.

Her office is looking into Auburn’s difficulties.

But Collins’ spokeswoman Jen Burita noted that the grant program is competitive, “designed by firefighters for firefighters with the applications reviewed by firefighters.”

Werts said Auburn seems to be uniquely qualified for one of the grants, given that the city “is in the busiest corridor in the Northeast” in terms of hazardous materials movement.

The city also hosts two rail lines, an airport, an international freight facility with Customs Service inspections, a chlorination facility for the Twin Cities’ public drinking water supply, and the Turnpike and Route 4, both of which get high-risk materials shipments.

But there’s a common misconception that the fire grant program is somehow tied to anti-terrorism efforts, Burita said.

“The program is not designed to prevent terrorist attacks; it is designed to prevent and fight fires,” she said. It was conceived under the Clinton administration prior to the Sept. 11 terrorists attacks on America.

Whatever the intent, Auburn could still use some help, Werts said.

“It’s crazy,” he said. Rejecting Auburn’s repeated applications doesn’t make sense.

“I just don’t understand the process,” he said.

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