Fire Department secures grant for radios

Date: 4/2/2012

April 2, 2012

By Chris Maza

chrism@thereminder.com

EAST LONGMEADOW — With his tenure as head of the East Longmeadow Fire Department soon coming to a close, Chief Richard Brady has not stopped making significant contributions to the community.

On March 27, Brady gathered with Congressman Richard Neal, State Rep. Brian Ashe and Board of Selectmen Chair James Driscoll to celebrate the receipt of a $320,923 grant from the Federal Department of Homeland Security, which will reimburse most of the Fire Department's share of a $1.3 million town-wide radio system upgrade. It was the first major federal grant Brady has applied for as chief.

East Longmeadow joins Springfield, Agawam and South Hadley on the list of local communities to have received similar competitive grants.

"I'm proud to be associated with Chief Brady and he will be sorely missed when he retires at the end of this fiscal year. He's been a great department head and leader and we appreciate everything he's done," Driscoll said. "This grant is a great feather in his helmet, so to speak."

Due to an unfunded mandate by the Federal Communications Commission that required the town to switch its radio frequency to narrowband, the town approved the spending of $1.3 million to upgrade the system town-wide at a Special Town Election on June 28, 2011.

According to Brady, the Fire Department's share of that expense originally totaled $500,000, but because it will share some of the equipment with the Police Department, its actual contribution is around $365,225.

Brady applied for a grant totaling $337,466 and was awarded $320,923.

"After the town had approved the payment of the town-wide radio system at $1.3 million, I thought about applying for a grant to help pay the Fire Department's share of the cost," he said. "I did apply and then many months went by. I hadn't heard anything and I had actually forgotten about it until I received a notice that we had received the grant."

Driscoll said the grant would bring a great deal of relief to the town, which faced a tremendous undertaking when exploring the communications upgrade that was funded by the taxpayers.

"Our town has a huge liability in its communications system and we were mandated to come up with a solution. To have a project of $1.3 million in a budget of just over $50 million, that's a huge project for us," Driscoll said. "It's something we had to carefully plan for, which took years, and to fund. We did get it funded through taxation and to have the chief work overtime to come up with a federal grant like this and receive it, it's a tremendous impact for the town's bottom line and an incredible relief for each and every taxpayer.

"We're incredibly grateful to the chief for doing that through his leadership and hard work ... Without his leadership, it just wouldn't have happened," he continued.

Ashe, Brady and Driscoll thanked Neal for his help on the federal level in getting the grant.

"Public safety has been on everybody's mind since [Sept. 11, 2001]," Ashe said. "We all want public safety, but it's not cheap. Fire equipment like this is very expensive and we are blessed to have the leadership of Congressman Neal, someone who has been in Washington so long and can bring home the needed services."

But Neal lauded Brady and the Fire Department for the ability to put together a solid grant proposal in order to secure the funding.

"Members of Congress can be very helpful on a grant application, but the grant application really has to stand up under the magnifying glass and I think it's a great credit to Chief Brady and his staff here of the sound application that they put together. It acknowledges the role first responders play in our lives," Neal said.

Driscoll said a vendor for the radio equipment has been selected, while Brady added that he hoped the system would be operational prior to the end of the summer.