Boulder County OKs $1.3M in grants for rural fire districts

BOULDER — The Board of Boulder County Commissioners this week approved $1,301,726 in grant awards for the 2024 Fall Fire Protection District Grant Round to help pay for capital and equipment needs for emergency-service providers in the county.

Funding for the grants is provided by the emergency services sales and use tax, which was approved by voters in 2022 as ballot issue 1B.

The fall grant round was offered to mountain and rural fire protection districts. A second round of grants will be offered this spring to search-and-rescue organizations in Boulder County.

“For the second year in a row, we are pleased to be able to support critical, local fire and rescue services by affirming a community-based advisory group’s recommendations for the grant awards,” Boulder County Commissioner Marta Loachamin said in a prepared statement. “Using dedicated funds approved by the generous voters of Boulder County, the emergency-services sales tax helps provide tangible equipment, supplies and capital assets to fire districts with specific needs that might otherwise go unmet due to limited budgets and competing demands for funding.”

The 13 awards approved Tuesday through this round of the Emergency Services Grant Program will help pay for lifesaving medical equipment, personal protective equipment for firefighters and emergency personnel, capital improvements for aging fire stations, new emergency and firefighting vehicles, upgraded radios and communications, and other critical supplies to enhance first responder and community safety.

The agencies receiving grants:

• Boulder County Firefighters Association was awarded $49,588 for a year of funding for its physician advisor position for all unincorporated Boulder County fire districts, as well as for the Handtevy platform, a mobile training system. Emergency responders use the platform to administer on-scene life support or medical treatment.
• Boulder Fire Rescue was awarded $68,990 to purchase technical equipment and related accessories to respond to structural-collapse incidents and other technical rescues. A lack of this equipment exists within and directly around Boulder Fire’s response area. The equipment would be made available to any Boulder County fire or rescue agency for use.
• Boulder Rural Fire Protection District was awarded $16,063 to procure cyclist/pedestrian extrication and rescue equipment to remove vehicles — such as lifting SUVs and pickup trucks — quickly and effectively to free entrapped cyclists and pedestrians. Boulder Rural is often the first or closest agency to respond to life-threatening vehicle, train and cyclist accidents along Colorado Highway 119, the Diagonal Highway between Boulder and Longmont.
• Four Mile Fire Protection District was awarded $93,145 to replace outdated structure-fire and wildland-fire personal protective equipment to ensure responder safety during emergency calls for service and training opportunities. The purchase will meet upcoming federal mandates requiring use of PFAS-free personal equipment ensembles.  PFAS — per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances  —  are a class of chemicals that are known carcinogens and are found in current personal protective equipment as a component of the moisture barrier.
• Gold Hill Fire Protection District was awarded $150,659 to improve its emergency response capabilities through acquisition of a specialized wildland/rescue vehicle and make fire station infrastructure improvements including the addition of an emergency generator, associated electrical upgrades, and widened bay door access for Gold Hill’s fire trucks.
• The Hygiene Fire Protection District was awarded $35,442 to equip its bunker room with a new commercial extractor, drying cabinet, gear storage and other essentials. These upgrades will protect firefighter health, improve emergency response readiness and ensure efficient, in-house gear maintenance, enhancing safety for both first responders and the community.
• Indian Peaks Fire Protection District was awarded $155,100 to upgrade its existing single-band, semi-obsolete Tk-790 mobile radios and base station to dual-band-capable mobile radios for the district’s fire and Emergency Medical Services vehicles. The grant also will enable the district to purchase new battery-powered extrication equipment, specifically a spreader, cutter, ram and other necessary accessories to equip district crews to respond to vehicle and cyclist accidents along the Peak-to-Peak Highway and remote areas situated away from other responding agencies.
• Jamestown Fire Department was awarded $202,000 to buy a Brush Truck 4230, a new Type 6 fire engine, for responses to vehicle accidents, fires, medical calls and other emergencies. The equipment will also be used to respond to surrounding communities on mutual-aid calls.
• Lefthand Fire Protection District was awarded $115,283 to buy structural firefighting ensembles that are free of PFAS.
• Lyons Fire Protection District was awarded $108,500 to purchase EMS equipment including a cardiac monitor, two mechanical CPR devices, one power load and stretcher system and three video laryngoscopes. Lyons is one of three rural districts equipped to administer Advanced Life Saving services in Boulder County.
• Mountain View Fire Protection District in Eldorado Springs was awarded $61,954 to purchase a new utility terrain vehicle to provide support on incidents in rugged terrain in south Boulder County. The UTV will allow Mountain View’s first responders to safely and efficiently shuttle gear and personnel to hard-to-reach mountain areas and move injured or sick patients from trails and wilderness areas to roads where ambulances can transport them to local hospitals. The request also includes a portable water tank to facilitate fire suppression.
• Nederland Fire Protection District was awarded $95,000 to replace mobile radios in all its vehicles. Its current radios are more than 20 years old, well beyond their end of life and fast approaching obsolescence. This request will provide for the purchase and installation of both UHF and 800-megahertz radios in each district vehicle so that first responders can communicate on either radio, depending on the location and type of response.
• Sugar Loaf Fire Protection District was awarded $150,000 to provide approximately half of the purchase price towards the replacement of a more than 20-year-old Type 6 wildland engine.

Boulder County received proposals totaling $1,608,776 for the 2024 grant round. The advisory committee created a process for evaluating the proposals and met twice in January to review and evaluate the applications. Both meetings were open to the public to attend and observe.

Before the two discussion meetings, each advisory committee member reviewed and scored the proposals on their own. The scores were shared in aggregate at the grant review meetings for comparison and evaluation purposes, and the committee issued its recommendations on Jan. 29.

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