MONTGOMERY TWP – The Fire Department of Montgomery Township has secured an $85,200 grant that will help the department keep some of the township’s most vulnerable residents much safer. That federal grant funding will be used ‘to provide and install traditional smoke alarms, units with voice notification for children, and strobe and bed shaker alarm kits (for) the deaf, hard of hearing and deaf-blind communities,’ said township Director of Fire Services Rick Lesniak. Lesniak announced Monday that the grant award was recently given by the federal Department of Homeland Security under its Fire Prevention and Safety grant program, which awarded a successful application from the department submitted in late 2012. The grant will require a township match of $8,520 – 10 percent of the total amount – which was approved by the township supervisors unanimously Monday night, after Lesniak described the high demand for those detectors from township residents. ‘Across the street in Neshaminy Falls, we have probably 80 to 100 requests a year for us to install smoke alarms, and batteries, and their units,’ Lesniak said. ‘Unfortunately due to limited resources, we only get about 60 smoke detectors a year,’ he said, largely through the
Operation 6abc Save a Life program
that brings Philadelphia news network 6abc together with fire departments across the region to raise awareness of fire safety. Now that it has been accepted, Lesniak said the township’s Department of Fire Services and Fire Department of Montgomery Township still need to price equipment, but will likely look to buy several hundred standard smoke detectors, and about the same number of programmable detectors that parents can use to warn children with messages recorded using their voices, as well as detectors specially designed for those hard of hearing. ‘We’ve never been given this type of resource in the past, and there is certainly a population that would need that assistance,’ he said. Any Montgomery resident in need of those special accommodations can contact the township DFS at (215) 393-6935. Also at Monday night’s meeting Lesniak and township Finance Director Shannon Drosnock discussed a request from FDMT to modify the township’s 2013 budget, since the planned replacement of its Engine 18-1 will not take place during the current fiscal year. Lesniak said the delay was requested by his department since vendor interviews are still being done to determine who would build the new truck. ‘We’re requesting that the funding be placed in the 2014 budget, which will give us a little more time to interview vendors and make a better decision,’ he said. Drosnock noted that given the high dollar total involved – $450,000 had been budgeted for the new engine – that line item and a $200,000 line item for new finance department software be amended out of the 2013 budget and included in the township’s 2014 budget, currently being drafted, instead. Those budget talks will continue with a special board budget workshop at 7 p.m. on Oct. 30 to discuss the 2014 budget for the Montgomery Township Police Department. Montgomery’s supervisors next meet at 8 p.m. on Nov. 11; both meetings will be held at the township administration building, 1001 Stump Road. For more information or meeting agendas and materials visit www.MontgomeryTwp.org or follow @MontTwp on Twitter. Follow staff writer Dan Sokil on Twitter @DanSokil.For breaking news SMS alerts from The Reporter, text LANNEWS to 22700 from your mobile phone. *Msg & data rates may apply. For help, text HELP. To cancel, text STOP.
