We were sitting there waiting and finally decided it was time to go back to the Health Department.

I can not submit this on behalf of the board of directors, but am submitting it as a concerned citizen. People really need to write their Congressman if they don't want to end up paying an even larger tax increase of some sort, just to support the fire departments. We really do count on these grants to assist in our needs.

The percentage is reduced each year, until after five years the fire department is able to continue on with paid staffing with it's own funding. At a time when volunteer fire departments across the nation are struggling to obtain new volunteers, this cut really hurts. It means fire departments will have to look to the public for even more support.

I urge everyone to write your Congressman. To keep the public safe, fire departments desperately need to have the continued access to grant monies in the same, or even greater amounts, as in previous years.

Purchasing new equipment simply isn't in your average fire department's budget. Cutting this budget amount means few fire departments will be able to obtain new equipment.

Turn-outs run $2,500 to $3,000 each. If a fire department has 10 volunteers, every five years they must budget for a $30,000 expenditure, just to keep up with this code alone.