There are of course thousands of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) grants that have been awarded. There is a total of $64.1B for transportation and other infrastructure investments. As of February $51B of that amount was obligated for 19,488 projects.
In these totals there is $210M for Firefighter Assistance Grants being administered by FEMA. These funds are building, remodeling, or repairing fire stations. By the numbers:
- Building 45 new fire stations
- Replacing 41 unsafe fire stations
- Renovating 16 unsafe fire stations
- Expanding 16 fire stations
It is a sorry state of affairs when a community lets their fire protection dwindle t the point where the fire station is considered "unsafe." But, this is the American way. If we can get by without doing something and put off action to another day--so be it. Maybe when the fire station burns down it will send a message.
I'm sure the communities and fire departments getting these new facilities will appreciate the new level of service that can be provide via this enhanced capability.
For more information see the report to the
Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.