Vermont Rural Fire Protection Task Force
The Vermont Rural Fire Protection
Task Force was formed in 1993 to assist Vermont towns and fire departments with
improving their rural fire protection capabilities. Since the Task Force was formed, it has acted as a steering committee
within both the Northern Vermont and George D. Aiken RC&D Councils. Major projects and success stories are the
Dry Hydrant Grant Program,
Rural Water Supply
Planning and Insurance Service Office (ISO) Audit
Preparation
Assistance, and the Jeffords Fire Safety Equipment Grant
Program.
Mission
Services
Goals
Steering
Committee Members
What's
New
Applications
and Forms
Dry
Hydrant Grant Program
2007 Dry Hydrant Grant Report
& State Distribution Map (State and Federal Funding)
Contacts
The mission of the Vermont Rural Fire Protection Task
Force is to enhance personal, family and property security against fire loss in Vermont
by coordinating individual, public and private resources to assist rural fire
departments to improve their fire protection capabilities.
Calendar of Events
2008 Dry Hydrant Grant Program: (Technical & Financial Assistance for
your Town)
- Applications will be mailed to Fire Departments, Town Offices, Select
Board, and Town Road Foreman's by April 1, 2008, and are due back
by April 30, 2008.
- Applications can also be downloaded in .PDF format (after 3/25/08) from
the RC&D web page. www.vt.nrcs.usda.gov/rc&d/RC&D_Apps&Forms.html
- If you would like an application sent to you, or you have any questions or
comments, please contact Troy Dare at (802) 828-4582 or dryhydrantguy@yahoo.com.
ISO (Insurance Service Office)
Workshop: (Lower your rating and save your town $$)
-
When: June 21, 2008 - 8am to
5pm
-
Where: Vermont Technical College - Old Dorm Conference Room
-
Cost: $15 per
person (Price includes morning refreshments, lunch, ISO Rating Schedule, needed
fire flow for your town, rural water supply grading information and ISO
worksheets). Fee is non-refundable if you do not attend.
-
Note: RSVP by June 10,
2008.
-
Contact: Ken Hafner, Coordinator, George D. Aiken RC&D Council, (802)
728-9526 or kenneth.hafner@vt.usda.gov
Dry Hydrant 10 Year Anniversary Celebration!!!
The Vermont Rural Fire Protection Task Force will be combining its bi-monthly
business meeting with the 10 year celebration at an important quadruple hydrant
location - come check it out! All are welcome!!
- When: May 14, 2008 - 10am to 12noonish
- Where: Grist Mill Restaurant, Access Road, Killington Vermont
- Contact: Troy Dare at (802) 828-4582 or dryhydrantguy@yahoo.com.
http://www.vt.nrcs.usda.gov/rc&d/NoVT/Projects/Rural_Fire_Protection/RuralFireTaskForce.html
Vermont Rural Fire Protection Task Force is celebrating its 10th year of the Dry
Hydrant Grant Program. More details to come.
2007
Dry-Hydrant Grant Program
Grant
Recipient List
$2500 Grant Recipients:
$1000 Grant Recipients:
1. Albany
1. Coventry
2. Barton
2. Dummerston
3. Belvidere
3. Hyde Park
4. Benson
4. Marlboro
5. Bethel
5. Montgomery
6. Brownington
6. Morgan
7. Cabot
7. Ryegate
8. Cambridge
8. St. Johnsbury
9. Charlotte
9. Starksboro
10. Chelsea
10. West Windsor
11. Craftsbury
12. Danby
13. Dorset
14. Enosburg
Misc. Amounts:
15. Ferrisburg x2
16. Fletcher
1. Hartford $1,500
17. Goshen
2. Holland $1,700
18. Grafton
3. Roxbury $1,500
19. Granby
4. Walden $1,500
20. Granville
5. Waterford $2,000
21. Greensboro
6. Westford $2,000
22. Groton
23. Highgate
24. Huntington
25. Marshfield
26. Middlesex
Total Grant Money Given = $190,200
27. Middletown Springs
28. Milton
29. Monkton
30. New Haven
31. Orange
32. Orwell
33. Pawlet
34. Plainfield
35. Plymouth
36. Pomfret
37. Proctor
38. Reading
39. Rockingham
40. Rupert
41. Sandgate
42. Sheffield x2
43. Shelburne
44. Sherburne
45. Springfield x2
46. Strafford
47. Stratton
48. Stowe
49. Sunderland
50. Tinmouth
51. Topsham
52. Tunbridge
53. Vershire
54. Waterbury x2
55. Weathersfield
56. West Haven
57. Westminster
58. Whiting
59. Whitingham
60. Williston
61. Windham
62. Windsor
63. Wolcott
64. Worcester
Dear Vermont Rural Fire
Protection Task Force 2007 Dry Hydrant Grants Program Recipient:
On behalf of the Vermont Rural
Fire Protection Task Force, thank you for your interest and efforts in keeping
Vermont’s communities safe and viable.
We received applications from
80 Towns with $249,650 requested for improving rural fire protection, a
tremendous response! Congratulations, your project was chosen for funding!
It is vital that all dry hydrant projects be
installed properly and completed
this construction season to ensure future funding.
Please help us make this
program a success now and in the future by complying with the items on the
checklists below. Not painting the hydrant or installing guard posts,
installing the fire lane sign or completing the one page match documentation
form are all things that have held up completion of projects in the past.
You have been awarded a dry
hydrant grant. We have grant awards
between $1,000 and $2,500.
Please see the attached summary sheet for your
final grant award amount. A check
for 75% of the total cost of the project (up to the award amount) will be
forwarded to you upon receipt of your final paperwork and after Troy Dare,
Engineering Technician, approves your hydrant installation during a final
inspection. Note: If you are in need of an advance of funds up to 50% of your
grant award, please invoice Northern Vermont RC&D in writing, and payment will
be forwarded to you. Contact Beth Ann Finlay, Grant Administrator with any
questions regarding funding (802) 828-4595.
The following is a checklist
for you to use during your project installation.
Project Completion Checklist
o
Contact Troy Dare, Engineering Technician, who has
been hired to provide towns with free technical assistance in
dry hydrant survey, layout and design. Troy can be reached daily 8 - 5 p.m. at
(802) 828-4582 or you can email him
at any time at dryhydrantguy@yahoo.com. Troy will be out in the field much of
the time, please leave a detailed
message so he can get right back to you. Important Note: If your site
has not been designed with our assistance,
we must review and approve it prior to installation. Contact Troy at 828-4582.
o
Work
completed according to the specifications of the Vermont Rural Fire Protection
Task Force. Questions
regarding correct specifications for materials (i.e. schedule 40 pipe or better)
should be directed to Troy Dare, Task
Force Engineering Technician at 828-4582.
o
Necessary
Permits acquired (Wetlands State and Federal), Lakes and Ponds (State and
Federal), Stream Alteration
Permit, Water Quality Permit, Property Use Easement, and Fish and Wildlife –
(information and sample forms
enclosed).
o
Field work (surveying,
permitting applications, and construction coordination) completed by September
1, 2007.
o
All project work (installation
of system) completed by November 1, 2007, unless by special permission from Troy
Dare, Engineering Technician, (802) 828-4582.
o
Final report (items listed
below) must be submitted by November 15, 2007 before your grant amount can be
awarded.
The Final Report with
the items below must be received in order to release project award.
o
25% local match Documentation form
submitted. (See attached form.)
o
Copies of invoices and receipts.
o
Six color photos of project before, during
and after the project. (We like ACTION shots!)
o Copy
of 1 news article.
Once items listed above
are received, a final site inspection will be conducted by Troy Dare, Task Force
Engineering Technician to check the following:
o
Standpipe painted. (Please point your existing PVC
hydrants, sunlight makes them brittle &
shortens
their life span!)
o
Hydrant protected by guard posts.
o Lift
does not exceed 15 feet.
o Year
round access provided.
o Signage
- No Parking Fire Lane posted.
o Maintenance
Record established with first back flush and pump test recorded.
Please schedule your final
inspection with Troy Dare when the items above have been completed. If you have
any questions or desire additional information, please feel free to contact us.
Good luck and keep in touch!
Free services available to Vermont Towns and Fire Departments include:
-
Evaluation,
design, and implementation of dry hydrants and drafting basin for year-round
access.
-
Development
of town-wide fire suppression water supply plans.
-
Assistance
with construction inspection of installed improvements.
-
Assistance
to fire departments in raising resources to install dry hydrants and
purchase NFPA approved equipment.
-
Assistance
with the education needs of rural fire departments.
-
Assess
statewide need for improved fire protection.
-
Link
fire protection with economic development to create a coordinated fire
protection strategy.
-
Facilitate
financial and technical assistance to address fire protection needs.
-
Develop
fire safety programs and distribute educational information and materials.
-
Fire
Fighters
-
State
and Federal Agencies
-
Municipalities
-
ISO
(Insurance Service Office)
-
Representatives
of Federal and State Legislators
-
Other
Fire Service Organizations
-
The
Public at Large
-
List of
Steering Committee Members
Vermont Fire
Service Statistics
-
Vermont
had a high per capita death rate
due to fire when compared with the rest of the US
-
The state is rural with 246 small towns and 226 fire departments
-
There
are only 12 paid full time fire departments in the state
-
Of
the 6,500 firefighters in Vermont, 6,250 or 96% are volunteers
-
Most
Volunteer Fire Departments are dependent on their individual town budgets
which are funded by property taxes
-
Other
sources of revenue for fire departments included donations and fundraisers
-
8
of 10 businesses that suffered a fire did not reopen
ISO - Insurance Service Office Audit Preparation
Assistance:
A Task Force subcommittee is working on a video to
compliment the Fire Wise/Fire Foolish dioramas, and a video outlining dry
hydrant maintenance.
The two "Rural Fire Protection Day" pilot workshops
have been done summary/outlines should be available for towns to model and use
for their own educational workshops soon.
The Town of Killington and the Sherburne Volunteer Fire Department
has lowered their ISO rating from a 9/9 to a 5/8b and are working on getting the
5 lowered again to a 4. That would make their ISO rating a 4/8b and will
save the town of Killington an estimated $100,000 a year minimum in insurance
premiums town-wide.
Contact
information for the Dry Hydrant Grant Program:
Troy
Dare, Engineering Technician,
802-828-4582, dryhydrantguy@yahoo.com
or
Beth
Ann Finlay, Coordinator,
Northern Vermont
RC&D,
beth_ann.finlay@vt.usda.gov
Northern Vermont
RC&D
617 Comstock Road, Suite 2
Berlin
,
VT
05602
-8498
Phone:
802-828-4595
Fax:
802-223-6163
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