Several area fire departments are receiving grant funding through the Office of Kansas State Fire Marshal for recruitment and safety initiatives.
Hartford-Neosho Rapids, Olpe, Chase County District 1, Eureka Volunteer Fire and Osage County District 1 are among almost 90 fire departments that will share over $1.3 million after budgetary action by the Kansas Legislature and Governor Laura Kelly earlier this year. The Fire Marshal’s Office provided $100,000. The remaining funds came from the federal American Rescue Plan Act.
All five area departments received $15,000 for gear. The vast majority of the funding — around $1.2 milion — has been earmarked for safety gear, with the rest funding washer and extractor machines or junior firefighter programs.
Hartford-Neosho Rapids has received significant grant funding from the Kansas Forest Service and Frontier Farm Credit earlier this year on top of the State Fire Marshal funds. All told, the department has turned $22,000 in grants into six sets of structure fire gear and five sets of grass fire gear.
