RVC FD Awarded $865K FEMA Grant

The Rockville Cente Fire Department was recently awarded an $865,000 Federal Emergency Management Agency SAFER grant spread over the next four years.

The SAFER award (Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response) supports a four-year recruitment and retention program designed to attract 80 new volunteers to the department and provide current members with incentives to increase their specialty training.

The grant will also fund a part-time program manager to oversee various initiatives along with a Recruitment and Retention Board. The plan includes a marketing program, funds for equipment and training, as well as tuition assistance, additional accident and disability insurance and a length of service award program. 

The grant application notes that one-third of current fire department members are over 55 and that the lack of sufficient volunteers had led to the department paying for an outside ambulance service to respond on weekdays between 6:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m.

The application also cites the state’s two percent tax cap as further reducing funds available to the department for recruitment, training and retention incentives.

“This award will enable us to add to our ranks and to better train our membership in order to better serve the people of Rockville Centre,” said Chief of Department John Busching. “Enhanced training programs will mean we will have a larger pool of the most highly trained firefighters to draw on. This will enhance firefighter safety and provide better protection for the public."

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The grant application was prepared in the village’s grants office by one of the part-time grant writers hired by Mayor Fran Murray soon after his election last year.

The Rockville Centre grant was the largest of three awarded on Long Island: Lynbrook received $116,000 and Great Neck $501,000.

“We are grateful for this support from the federal government and for the assistance provided by Rep. Carolyn McCarthy in securing this grant,” Murray said. “This program will assist our department in continuing its 100-year-plus tradition of providing emergency services to our residents and the public and will help the department grow and flourish over the next four years and beyond."