Safety And Licensing Committee Votes On Two Grants For Fire Department, Receives Update On Third

The Safety and Licensing Committee met 09/28/2022. They voted on two grants received by the Fire Department and received an update from Fire Chief Hansen on another grant.

The first grant they voted to approve was FEMA’s Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG) for a Regional Radio Project.

Fire Chief Hansen told the committee that there was a county-wide effort to replace their radios. About 2 years ago they had been notified by Motorola that important parts for the radios were no longer going to be manufactured, including the intrinsically safe batteries that went inside the radios. Because the Fire Department was often called on to check out gas leaks, they needed to have radios that would not cause a spark.

The Appleton Fire Department partnered with 17 other agencies within Outagamie County and submitted a request to FEMA for $4,315,312.30 to replace their portable radios. He noted that the radios cost about $10,000 apiece.

They were awarded a grant but only for $1.8 million which was approximately 42% of the total grant amount they had requested. Because of that, next year, instead of having a capital outlay of around $55,000, the City of Appleton would have a capital expense of around $315,000. He said he had worked with both the Finance Director and the mayor and that would be in the city’s 2023 capital budget because they needed to replace their radios since they would no longer be able to buy parts for their current radios.

Alderperson Sheri Hartzheim (District 13) noted that because of the smaller nature of the grant, the financial impact on the city was larger than expected. She wondered where they would be able to make up that money within the Fire Department Budget.

Chief Hansen said the radio expenses would be part of the equipment capital borrowing.

The committee voted 5-0 to accept the grant.

They then moved on to the request to accept the Emergency Medical Service (EMS) FLEX Grant.

Chief Hansen told the committee that this was part of American Rescue Plan Act funds that Governor Evers had made available as grants to emergency responders. In total, Governor Evers had distributed around $32 million to 455 fire departments across the state.

Appleton had requested $94,100 and had been allocated a little over $52,000. Chief Hansen noted that the memo indicated they had been awarded $51,270, but that dollar amount had changed earlier the day of the meeting to something around $52,400. They would be using those funds to purchase two items:

1. Active Threat Mass Casualty Bags full of things they would need to respond to a mass casualty event to stop bleeding and such. He said those bags would not really have expiration dates and would be around for a long time because things like tourniquets (one of the items in the bags) last for a very long time.
2. A Utility Terrain/Truck Vehicle (UTV) that has an EMS bed in it so they could actually lay a patient down, strap them in, and transport them with it. The UTV they were looking at had a maximum speed of 45 MHP so it would be road legal. This would allow them to take it on roads instead of having to transport it by trailer to a location. He said they could use it for events like Octoberfest, Mile of Music, and the Farmers Market. They would also be able to use it during Public Education events.

The committee voted 5-0 to approve the grant.

Chief Hansen also reported on a WE Energies Grant they had applied for. They had received notification that they were denied their request for $2,000. They had planned to use that money for a new CPR mannequin, so would now be looking for other grants that could potentially fund that purchase.

Chief Hansen also told the committee that the city had reached a temporary agreement with the local firefighters’ union. It was a 3-year contract that the union had ratified in the last couple days. That would be brought to the Human Resources and Information Technology Committee some time in October during one of their October meetings.

View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=995752&GUID=FFDBE458-7879-439A-A98E-24E13D33659E