$635K grant helps Mont. FDs purchase over 120 radios
The Stevensville Town Council approved a payment to grant writers for an AFG application that would fund 127 new radios for Ravalli County fire departments
Stevensville firefighters participate in training with Two Bear Air Rescue.
Stevensville Fire Department/Facebook
By Jackson Kimball
Missoulian
STEVENSVILLE, Mont. — The Stevensville Town Council reluctantly approved an $1,800 payment to grant writers for the town’s 2024 Assistance to Firefighters Program grant application at their April 25 meeting, noting that “communication should have been better.”
The grant is for $635,000 in funding, that if approved, will be spent on new radios for multiple Ravalli County fire departments.
According to Stevensville Rural Fire Department Town Chief, Jeff Motley, who spoke at Thursday’s meeting, the town owes $1,800 to the New York grant writing company, Grantmasters Inc., for the draft they drew up in December of last year.
The grant would purchase 127 radios for Stevensville Fire Department, Stevensville Rural Fire, Florence Fire Department and Sula Fire Department. Stevensville would receive 21 of the 127 radios.
Although Motley’s numbers were later disputed at Thursday’s meeting, he told the town council they would have to pay $6,048 to match 5% of their $105,000 share of the grant, if it was approved.
“The grand total that it will cost the town, if we are successful, is $7,848 for 21 radios with a $105,000 value,” Motley said. “There’s no way this town could go out and buy $105,000 worth of radios. We just can’t afford that. However, we can afford to hop in on a grant and try to see if we’re successful doing it that way.”
Motley said that the need for new radios in Ravalli County was crucial, citing the state’s slow transition over to 800 MHz radio frequencies. He added that in addition to the narrowing frequency bandwidth, the Stevensville Fire Department had been “piecing and parting together” radios off of eBay for “a number of years.”
“There is a need for radio communications in the fire department,” said Stevensville Rural Fire Department Town Chief, Jeff Motley at Thursday’s meeting. “With all the changes in regulations that have come down the road, our handhelds are no longer capable of communication because of the frequency changes and the different bandwidth… We ran into a fire a week ago up on the eastside and we were at the top of the hill and bottom of the hill and we didn’t have radio communication from the top to the bottom of the hill.”
Members of the council were slightly skeptical of the proposal price and the process timeline, Stacie Barker explaining that the request felt like a surprise.
“The one thing that I don’t like is that the money was asked for in the claims before this even came forward,” Barker said. “We’ve known this since December…Why did we wait so long to bring it forward?”
Motley told council members that the Fire Department had budgeted for the expenditure and that they had been in discussion with the Mayor other town officials about the grant status since December.
Town Director of Finance and Human Resources, Gina Crowe, also questioned Motley at the meeting, pointing out that the $6,048 match rate he quoted the council was more than 5% of the $105,000 number that he reported earlier in the meeting.
“The grand total would be $7,050, not $7,848,” said Crowe, after running some of the numbers herself at the meeting.
“Right now I don’t have the documentation,” Motley said. “I would like to go back and check the numbers on this proposal.”
Council members concluded the discussion by approving the grant writers fee payment in a 3-0 vote, but they also noted that going forward grant applications should be better communicated to the council.
“I feel that communication should have been done better,” said council member Cindy Brown . “But, I would personally not be able to live with myself if one of our volunteers got hurt because we didn’t approve this.”
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