Ida Township Fire Department receives funding for staff

IDA – The Ida Township Fire Department received $200,000 Wednesday. The funds will be used to staff the volunteer fire department during daytime hours on weekdays.

The funding comes from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grant program.

“Due to the challenge of providing fire and EMS response while most volunteer firefighters work their full-time jobs, we had to find new ways to meet the community needs,” Carl Arnold, captain of the Ida Township Fire Department, said. “The SAFER award allows two part-time personnel to staff the fire station Monday thru Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., which is statistically when we have the fewest responders for calls. Having two personnel on station drastically reduces our response times and improves our service delivery model. We would like to express our thanks to our elected officials for continuing to support public safety grant programs like SAFER, and specifically U.S. Sens. Debbie Stabenow and Gary Peters, for support on our application.”

“Our firefighters put their lives on the line to protect our families, homes and communities,” Stabenow said. “These new resources will help the Ida Township Fire Department make sure there is always someone there to answer the call in an emergency.”

“It’s critical that fire departments have the resources needed to protect their communities,” Peters said. “I’m proud to have helped secure this funding for Ida Township to staff their volunteer fire department during daytime hours in the week so they can continue to safely and effectively respond to emergencies.”