Fire department seeks federal grant

The Commerce Volunteer Fire Department is working on establishing a program that would provide scholarships and other compensation for A&M-Commerce students who join the department.

Commerce City Council approved an application from Fire Chief Brian McNevin to the Department of Homeland Security's SAFER Grant. If accepted, the SAFER Grant would provide the Fire Department with $760,000, enough money to fund the program for four years.

"We strongly believe that with continued growth of our city and the university, coupled with increases in emergency responses, inspections, public fire and safety educational programs, and other calls for service," McNevin said, "this type of aggressive program to recruit and retain qualified individuals will be vital for our department to continue to improve our service and provide the highest level of service to our community."

A&M-Commerce has committed to providing resources for the program after the first four years of funding runs out.

"Over the four-year project we will work to identify scholarships and resources to sustain the project through the fifth year and after the funding period," Dr. Dan Jones, president of A&M-Commerce, said. "We will also assist in identifying and developing other grants to continue this worthwhile initiative."

McNevin plans on utilizing A&M-Commerce to market the program to students, an idea that Dr. Jones fully supports.

"I know that through an effective partnership we can bring the resources of our One-Stop Center for Student Access and Success and other divisions of the university to assist in making this project a success," Jones aid.

The program would have minimum training and work requirements for volunteers. They will be required work at the fire station, respond to events, train and participate in events.

"We would give students physicals and train them," McNevin said. "Once they become active members and meet our minimum requirements they will be eligible for tuition reimbursement."

McNevin hopes to bring in 21 new reserve members through this program, which provide quicker response time to incidents and cut down on the overtime current volunteers have to work.

"This will help our initial response to incidents and increase our on-duty staffing from four to six, with two on reserve," McNevin said.

McNevin expects it to be more than simply financially beneficial for students.

"I think people getting involved in a program like this will make them a better person," he said. "We're wanting to take these students and mold them into something. I've been doing this job for 36 years and it makes me more appreciative of everything that goes on outside of this job."

If the application is accepted by the Department of Homeland Security, the Commerce City Council will have to approve the program again for it to go into effect.

"We're just saying a prayer that our application is accepted," McNevin said.

The Commerce Volunteer Fire Department is currently taking applications for volunteers. Interested parties can contact Fire Chief Brian McNevin at his office phone number 903-886-1137.