Kentucky fire departments get federal money

By JONATHAN M. KATZ
The Associated Press

WASHINGTON- Kentucky fire departments are in line for $6.6 million in federal funding for new equipment and other improvements.

The grants will be divvied up among 56 fire departments statewide, many of which will be paid as reimbursements for equipment purchases. The grants are the first round of the Department of Homeland Security's 2005 Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program, said Mike Reynard, a spokesman for Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky.

Grants will continue to be announced throughout the fall, said Mary Hudak, a spokeswoman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. This week, about 445 awards of $47 million will be announced for eight southeastern states: Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina and Mississippi.

''It's far too early in the process to predict how many grants will be allocated in each state. We're very early in the reviewing process,'' Hudak said.

In Western Kentucky, the Nebo Volunteer Fire Department will be eligible for about $235,000 to be spent on a new pumper tanker truck. It will replace an ailing model built in 1973, one of three trucks the department uses to serve the town of 300.

''It's a pretty scattered out area, really limited on fire hydrants,'' said Fire Chief Steve Ashby. ''We really needed a pumper tanker.''

The federal boost will be a windfall for the department, which gets by on a $15,000 annual budget and the service of volunteers, said Ashby, who is also a coal miner.

Other grants range from about $7,700 for the Gamaliel Volunteer Fire Department near the Tennessee border to about $385,600 for the fire department in Dry Ridge, north of Lexington. Two departments in the Louisville area - the Highview and Harrods Creek fire districts - are eligible for about $176,200 and $162,000, respectively.

''These funds are vital to ensuring that our firefighters in Kentucky have the tools necessary to handle emergencies in the safest and most effective manner possible,'' Bunning said in a statement.