Is this only happening in my town?

EMTWintz

EMTWintz

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Not sure if this is just my town or if there are others out there like this, but I am just a little peeved. As some of you know we have a volly squad in Podunk, IL. I have heard my SO talk about the NEW truck the FD is getting (hes on FD) have seen the "other" new truck they got month ago (paid 10k cash). Since we have been back (March of 08) the FD has added onto the house and bought 3new trucks. Here is where I get peeved, our rig is old, our house floods, we barely have money to do anything. WERE IS ALL THEIR $$ COMING FROM? At this rate we will have an awsome FD and NO rescue. Like its some big secret, I have asked SO were they are getting funds, JA wont tell me.
Anyone else have this problem in their town?

(side note: the only time we get funds is when someone DIES and the family asks for funds to be donated to us. So we run off death money. No deaths=no income. This sucks
 
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1. There are tons of grants "free money" for fire departments. The way these federal grants are written, there is no money for services that provide EMS only.

2. People are ignorant. They donate to the FD thinking the entities are one in the same. This used to happen often with a VFD I was closely affiliated with. They would receive checks thanking them for their EMS/ambulance response when in actuality they had nothing to do with it.

3. You have not educated your community. Get the word out, same as the FD does. Do BP drives, do EMS displays, take the time to educate them. They honestly do not know.

4. Do your own fund raising. This will also help with #3.
 
akflightmedic said:
1. There are tons of grants "free money" for fire departments. The way these federal grants are written, there is no money for services that provide EMS only.

2. People are ignorant. They donate to the FD thinking the entities are one in the same. This used to happen often with a VFD I was closely affiliated with. They would receive checks thanking them for their EMS/ambulance response when in actuality they had nothing to do with it.

3. You have not educated your community. Get the word out, same as the FD does. Do BP drives, do EMS displays, take the time to educate them. They honestly do not know.

4. Do your own fund raising. This will also help with #3.
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Very well said, I can't think of anymore to say... so I am just echo'ing "akflight". I use to volunteer on an ambulance squad back when I was a senior in high school, up until I went off to medic school. I was fortunate to get on a really well run/maintained volly service. The fire and ems are totally seperate (as a lot of vollies are). The volly amb. service has a lot of money (where they get most of it.... fundraising :D), so they have a brand new building, newer ambulances, and up-to-date equiptment.

Take Care,
 
akflightmedic said:
1. There are tons of grants "free money" for fire departments. The way these federal grants are written, there is no money for services that provide EMS only.

2. People are ignorant. [snip for brevity]

3. You have not educated your community. [snip for brevity]

4. Do your own fund raising. This will also help with #3.
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Actually, number one isn't completely true. The squad that I run with is EMS only (no fire, no rescue, nothing but EMS) and we just got all new radios (and I do mean NEW, not 'gently used' ) from a grant. So there IS free money for EMS only, it's just harder to find.

The rest of it is true.
 
We used to have all kinds of fundraisers, but sadly most of our members have moved on. We have 8 people and I am seeing that people are having a hard time stirin' up some give a :censored::censored::censored::censored: to do anything other than show up to calls. I guess what I am looking for is how do I get these slackers to do something? I have many ideas for fundraisers but getting anyone to commit to doing any of them is another story. The list include: meals, car washes, dog washes, wellness checks, bike show/car shows, doing alot of activities during EMS week (complete with face painting and fire hose soccer) and not to mention I would like to arrange a mock MCI to include people from the community. See I have ideas just lack of helpers.
 
wolfwyndd said:
Actually, number one isn't completely true. The squad that I run with is EMS only (no fire, no rescue, nothing but EMS) and we just got all new radios (and I do mean NEW, not 'gently used' ) from a grant. So there IS free money for EMS only, it's just harder to find.

The rest of it is true.
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Which grant did your agency apply for?
 
Thats the same in my town both FD and EMS are paid on call. They get more and better stuff than EMS. We can't even get snow tires for the rig. Last year the town bought the FD uniforms full dress blues shirts pants on a 5050 basis. We in the EMS have to pay for our uniforms fully correction the town did ay for our jumpsuits other than that they paid squat. They don't even buy us cold wether gear what we have is our own gear. Also our FD can fund raise hold BINGO's hold dances, suppers and other events. Our town's SAO told us we can't do any fund raising. We just got some more radios the radio that I have been issued is a Mototrola GP300 made in april 193. That is the date on theradio when I removed the battery. The FD got Motorola ht1250 new radios.
 
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Maybe you can get some DHS money before it dries up?

Start a CERT or something. Combination bomb truck and squad, combination ECP and ambulance, whatever...
Go out and throw some crab feeds, sell raffle tickets, hire the high school band to play at a spaghetti feed (their folks will all come).
 
My fire dept has gotten lots of grants for apparatus, equipment and training. However our ambulance is really the money maker for us. The $$ from runs goes into an account which is primarily for medical supplies and EMT stuff, so it works out pretty well for everyone.
 
Grady_emt said:
Which grant did your agency apply for?
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Sorry, couldn't tell ya. All I know is that our chief went through a list of grant monies available, said he was going to apply for a grant to replace our radios and then he told us that we got it and we got new radios shortly after that.
 
Why should the fire department be responsible to pay your way? or share their funding? They do their job, you do yours. Maybe you need to hire someone to look into utilizing your resources better, in order to draw in better funding.
 
WiFi_Cowgirl said:
Why should the fire department be responsible to pay your way? or share their funding? They do their job, you do yours. Maybe you need to hire someone to look into utilizing your resources better, in order to draw in better funding.
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I dont think anyone said anything to the fact. I was just wondering how many other towns had the same problem and how they overcame the $ shortage. True if we were a combined FD/EMS we would have soooo many more grants to choose from, but that will not happen. I am fine with being seperate it works for the most part and I would never suggest having "the FD pay our way" Try not to read more into a situation than what is there
 
You don't bill, but complain about the lack of money?<_<
 
BLSBoy said:
You don't bill, but complain about the lack of money?<_<
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Can't bill. We have an ALS squad that responds to all call in this county. They bill. No transport, no bill
In our town, a portion of everyones taxes go into a fund, so you can charge twice. The FD don't charge to put out fires either. They are just more dedicated to their FD than most of our squad members.
 
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So you also don't transport?
 
SO what exactly, DO you do?:unsure:
 
Solution.

Consolidate with them.
Become a volunteer component of their response.
It takes them 10 minutes to get there, what is your response time?
 
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