Article 22

Shall the Town vote to raise and appropriate the sum of $20,000 for Police, Fire, and Emergency Management to participate in applying for grants whereby a portion of said grant must be placed as a matching amount by the Town of Pelham for unanticipated money from the State, Federal, governmental, or non-governmental agency which becomes available? (Recommended by Selectmen) (Recommended by Budget Committee)

Status

• Originator: Board of Selectmen, Fire Chief, and Police Chief
• Board of Selectmen: 5-0-0
• Budget Committee: 10-0-0
• Town Meeting: no changes made during the Deliberative session

Voter's Guide Explanation

This warrant proposes to allocate $20,000 that can be used by our Emergency Management Departments (Fire and Police) when applying for State or Federal Grants that require some percentage of matching funds. Recent grant awards have allowed the Fire Department to obtain a Forestry Truck, an electrical generator, a special Operations Trailer, and an SCBA compressor to refill oxygen tanks. Any unused money at the end of the year is returned to the general fund.

Backup Data

• Forestry Truck
• Generator
• Special Ops Trailer    
• Air Compressor for SCBA

These are examples of recent equipment funded by State and Federal Grants.

This warrant article is for $20,000 to be used by the emergency service departments, which include the Fire Department and Police Department. This money would be used to assist with any special State, Federal, or Homeland Security grants that may come up during the year and need some type of matching funding from the town to be able to qualify to receive much larger amounts from the State and Federal government. An example of such would be a Ford pickup truck that the Fire Department received by way of a federal grant. This forestry truck was a $65,000 vehicle, fully equipped with firefighting equipment and also a snowplow in the front for cleaning hydrants and the parking lot. This was all done with only $6,000 worth of money from the town through the warrant article. The rest was paid for by the federal government. Also, we were able to pick up an emergency generator and a special operations trailer under the same circumstances. The Police Department utilized the warrant to assist them in picking up a four-wheeled drive unit that they patrol the parks and recreation areas, and other town remote off-road areas.

These grants come up during the year, and we are unable to go back to the voters to request any funds, which are in small amounts, to be able to apply for the different grants. Therefore, with this money put aside, we can apply for the grants, and if the Board of Selectmen votes and deems that it is proper, we can remove some money from the warrant article to go toward the town's portion of the grant.