Two Way Radio Directory - Blog

I know I will probably offend some folks with my comments, but here goes.

First let me say that I have been successful several times over the past 25
years winning grants from Federal, State and even commercial sources (yes,
some corporations have grants to support local public service).

What I have never been able to understand is why a fire company exists in an
area unwilling to provide more than $10,000 a year in annual funding. If the
people in that area are unwilling to protect their own property, they will
end up paying one way or the other, either by higher insurance costs, or
lost property and lives.

To me this is like people who spend all they make while working, never
setting aside anything for retirement, and then expect the rest of us to
take care of them.

Why should I in my state have federal tax money extracted from me, when I
buy insurance and pay high local taxes to support fire services, in order to
support some community far away unwilling to take care of themselves? Don’t
reply to me about helping my neighbor. My paycheck reflects the fact that I
am helping plenty of my neighbors already.

I invited two neighboring counties twice in the past five years to join us
in grant applications that required 25% matching funds. Both declined. I
believe the primary reason they declined was not due to lack of need, but
rather due to timid people who are intimidated by amounts of money multiples
of their annual personal income. They are literally afraid to go to their
governing officials and request what they are sure will be considered an
outrageous amount of money. We proceeded without them and easily obtained
millions of dollars, which has been very successfully applied to our own
needs.