Rather than competing with each other, 13 fire departments in Nassau County’s 8th Battalion recently teamed up to submit a proposal to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for money to retain and recruit volunteers.
The result was announced last week when the 13 fire departments celebrated the award of a $500,600 grant to assist in recruitment efforts by sending representatives to large public gatherings such as street fairs and purchasing advertising.
Among the grants recipients are the East Williston, Albertson, New Hyde Park, Great Neck (Alert and Vigilant) and Manhasset-Lakeville fire departments.
“They would have been in competition with each other for the grant money,” said Kevin Mulrooney, a partner in a grant-writing firm that worked on behalf of the 13 fire departments.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency, which reviews the grant applications, likes the idea of receiving a single grant application, Mulrooney added.
The idea for bringing the departments together to apply for the grant came from Mulrooney and Tom Devaney, a longtime member of the East Williston Fire Department and Mulrooney’s partner in JSK Inc., the fire-grant writing service.
The firm, which is also known as the Grant Guys, submitted the application in the spring of 2011. The firm was notified that the departments, all of which are JSK clients, had won the grant this month and a ceremony announcing the award was held last week in East Meadow.
Devaney said the grant addresses a common, but urgent need for local fire departments – to recruit new and younger members.
Devaney said that in the past departments had little trouble finding new recruits.
Typically, generations of families served, with sons following in the steps of fathers or uncles in joining up, he said.
But the pace of life has changed along with local economics, making recruitment more difficult.
“I think recruitment’s a problem. People don’t have the time,” Devaney said.
And younger people, he said, are moving away from Long Island due to the high cost of living
Devaney, who also writes grants full-time for the Town of North Hempstead, said the grant will allow the fire departments to appeal to different demographic groups based on the benefits offered volunteer firefighters.
For high school students, recruiters and recruitment advertising will emphasize the availability of free tuition at Nassau Community College. For slightly older recruit prospects, he said, the benefit of a 10 percent property tax break is an avenue of approach, along with length-of-service benefits that accrue similar to pension benefits.
Mike Green, chairman of the Great Neck Alert Fire Department board of trustees, said the departments’ pooling of resources was a more efficient way to recruit.
“Why have every department spend money when we can centralize it, when we can have a main theme and brochure,” Green said. “It gives us greater purchasing power. And not every department in the grant has people to go to the Fire Expo at the [Nassau] Coliseum or a street fair.”
Green, whose department sponsored the application, said recruitment typically rises after traumatic events such as the attacks on the World Trade Towers and Hurricane Sandy.
But in some cases, he said, the volunteers can’t meet training requirements that have become steadily more demanding.
Green noted that Long Island is relatively unique in relying on volunteer firefighters.
“Long Island is almost one of the only places in the country that still has volunteer departments,” Green said.
For the municipalities served by the 13 fire departments, the grant also has the benefit of covering costs that they would ordinarily have to cover.
“The [fire] department wins, we win, the taxpayers win,” said Village of East Williston Mayor David Tanner.
The first sign of the grant will be a spate of advertising in local community newspapers, Devaney said.
“We’ll be administering the grant to help direct these guys,” he said.
Reach reporter Richard Tedesco by e-mail at rtedesco@theislandnow.com or by phone at 516.307.1045 x204. Also follow us on Twitter @theislandnow1 and Facebook at facebook.com/theislandnow.
