Section 291.10  Definitions

 

The following definitions apply to terms used in this Part:

 

"Ambulance Service" means a not-for-profit emergency medical service provider or a unit of local government that provides emergency medical service within a geographical area.  An ambulance service shall be a volunteer, non-profit, stand alone emergency medical service provider not tied in any financial or legal manner to a fire department.

 

"Committee" means the Grant Application Review Committee established in Section 291.50.

 

"Fire Department" means a fire department, fire protection district or township fire department that is a unit of local government in Illinois that provides fire suppression within a geographical area.  For purposes of this Part, fire department is defined to include volunteer fire departments and volunteer fire protection districts.

 

"Fire Department Identification Number" or "FDID" means the unique identification number issued by the Office to fire departments that register for participation in the National Fire Incident Reporting System.

 

"Office" means the Office of the State Fire Marshal.

 

"Program" means the Small Equipment Grant Program.

 

"Small Equipment" means small tools and equipment that are stored or carried on fire protection vehicles or ambulances that respond to emergency incidents, such as extrication tools, hose and/or appliances, overhaul tools, forcible entry tools, communications equipment, self-contained breathing apparatus, portable generators, defibrillators and portable foam equipment.  Small equipment shall also mean equipment used by firefighters, such as personal protective equipment, communications equipment, PASS devices, or equipment used in the station for emergency purposes, such as foam storage devices or portable foam equipment stored in the station for use in a large scale emergency.

 

(Source:  Amended at 41 Ill. Reg. 10500, effective August 15, 2017)

 

Section 291.20  Purpose

 

The Office shall administer a program to provide grant funds for the purchase of small equipment by a fire department or ambulance service.  The Office shall determine grant awards based on equipment needs, financial need, and how recently the applicant has received a previous grant under this program. Grants for the purchase of small equipment shall not exceed $26,000 in any single fiscal year to any fire department or ambulance service.

 

(Source:  Amended at 41 Ill. Reg. 10500, effective August 15, 2017)

 

Section 291.30  Eligibility

 

a)         Fire department applicants must have participated in the National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) for a minimum of two years prior to the application for the small equipment grant, except that fire departments that were issued a Fire Department Identification Number by the Office less than two years prior to the application are eligible to apply for a small equipment grant if they have participated in NFIRS since the date their FDID was issued by the Office.

 

b)         Fire protection entities that are not governmental bodies are not eligible to apply for a grant under this program.

 

c)         Units of local government that do not operate fire departments or ambulance services are eligible for grants under this program (e.g., a municipality that contracts for fire suppression or emergency medical service from another municipality, fire protection district, or for-profit or not-for-profit business); however, if a unit of local government contracts for fire protection service from another unit of local government that has applied for a grant under this program, the unit of local government contracting to receive the services is prohibited from receiving a grant under this program.

 

d)         For-profit ambulance or emergency medical services are not eligible to apply.

 

(Source:  Amended at 41 Ill. Reg. 10500, effective August 15, 2017)

 

Section 291.40  Grant Application Procedure and Content

 

a)         Application Procedure

 

1)         Subject to the availability of appropriated funds, the Office will make application forms for small equipment grants under this program available to all Illinois fire departments and ambulance services. 

 

2)         A completed original application form shall be signed by the duly authorized officers of the applicant.

 

3)         Applications shall be returned, by the date specified on the form, to the Office of the State Fire Marshal, Attention:  Small Equipment Grant Program, 1035 Stevenson Drive, Springfield, Illinois 62703-4259.

 

4)         Applications received at the Office shall be logged in as received and assigned an Application Number.

 

b)         Application Content

Each Grant application shall include the following information:

 

1)         Identifying information for the applicant fire department or ambulance service and its local government.

 

2)         A detailed description of the applicant's need for the proposed small equipment.

 

3)         Identification of fire department, ambulance service or local government personnel to serve as contacts for information.

 

4)         Copies of the applicant's two most recent budget and appropriation ordinances.

 

5)         Any other information the Office may require to determine the applicant's eligibility under this Part in the event the Office needs to clarify the request, such as the nature of the applicant's organization.

 

c)         Review of Applications

Applications shall be assessed by blind review, meaning the Committee shall not see the name, address or any specific information that identifies the applicant.  The Committee shall review and rank the applications based on assessment of need and information provided in the grant application.

 

d)         Grant Award

After the Committee's review and ranking of applications, grant awards will be determined, subject to appropriation of the funds being made available by the State for grants under this program. 

 

(Source:  Amended at 41 Ill. Reg. 10500, effective August 15, 2017)

 

Section 291.50  Grant Applications Review Committee

 

a)         The State Fire Marshal shall appoint a Grant Review Committee to determine which applicants will receive grants and the amount of the grant.  If, for any reason, a successful applicant is unable to fulfill the terms of the grant or withdraws the request after it has been approved, the application's priority shall be used to determine which of the unsuccessful applicants will be next to be offered a grant in place of the withdrawing department.

 

b)         The Committee shall consist of the following seven members:

 

1)         The State Fire Marshal, or his or her designee, as Chair;

 

2)         Three Fire Chiefs (one each from a volunteer department, a combination department and a career/municipal department);

 

3)         One representative from the Associated Fire Fighters of Illinois;

 

4)         One member who is a volunteer firefighter; and

 

5)         One member from the Illinois Association of Fire Protection Districts.

 

c)         Members shall serve without salary, but may be reimbursed for reasonable expenses by the Office from appropriations for that purpose.

 

d)         All members shall have one vote, except that the State Fire Marshal shall only vote to break a tie.

 

e)         Members shall serve a term of four years.

 

f)         Upon the expiration of a member's term, the State Fire Marshal may reappoint that member or appoint a successor who is a representative of the same interests with which his or her predecessor was identified.

 

g)         Replacement of a Member

 

1)         The State Fire Marshal may, at any time, remove any of the respective appointees for inefficiency or neglect of duty in office. 

 

2)         All members shall serve ex officio. A member shall continue to serve only as long as he or she holds the position that made that individual eligible to serve under the criteria prescribed by subsection (b).

 

3)         In the instances described in subsections (g)(1) and (2), or upon the death or incapacity of a member, the State Fire Marshal shall fill the vacancy for the remainder of the unexpired term by appointing a member who is a representative of the same interests with which his or her predecessor was identified.

 

h)         Meetings of the Committee shall occur as often as deemed necessary by the Chair, at a date, time and place to be fixed by the Committee (or by the Chair, should he or she call for the meeting) and at such additional times as the Committee deems necessary to consider any business as properly may come before it.

 

i)          A quorum shall be a majority of the appointed positions that have been filled by appointment.  Unfilled positions shall not be counted.

 

j)          No Committee member affiliated with a fire department that has a pending application for a loan under this program shall participate in the review of that fire department's application.

 

k)         Members of the Committee are required to participate in annual ethics training. Upon completion of the ethics training program, members of the Committee must certify that they have completed the training program.

 

l)          Members of the Committee are required to execute a confidentiality statement agreeing not to disclose any information gained during the course of their service on the Committee.

 

(Source:  Amended at 41 Ill. Reg. 10500, effective August 15, 2017)

 

Section 291.55  Prescreening of Grant Applications by the Office

 

The Office will conduct a prescreening of all grant applications received by the deadline to identify applicants with the greatest financial need.  The steps of this prescreening are provided in this Section.

 

a)         The Office will evaluate whether each application was received by the deadline and whether the applicant has met the eligibility requirements of Section 291.30 as of the application deadline date.  Only those applicants that meet these

eligibility requirements will receive further consideration.

 

b)         The Office will determine whether each eligible applicant has submitted a

complete application as provided in Section 291.40.  The Office will attempt to assist applicants who have submitted a timely application with submitting any missing information after the application deadline.

 

c)         To assist the Committee in making final determinations of grant awards, the

Office will then rank complete applications of eligible applicants using the following criteria:

 

1)         The Office will use information provided by the applicant on its operating budget, square miles served and population served in developing a ranking of financial need.

 

2)         The Office will divide each applicant's budget by the square miles served to determine the applicant's budget per square mile and will rank the applicants lowest to highest.

 

3)         The Office will divide each applicant's budget by the population served to determine the applicant's budget per person and will rank the applicants lowest to highest.

 

4)         The Office will then average the two rankings of each applicant to reach an overall ranking based on financial need. 

 

d)         Applicants that have previously received a grant from the Office under this program will be ranked against each other according to the criteria in subsection (c), but this group of applicants will be ranked below all applicants that have not previously received a grant under this program.

 

e)         Using the ranking criteria identified in subsections (c) and (d), the Office will rank the applications.  Based upon the grant amount requested by each applicant, the Office will provide the Committee with complete application information for the top ranked applications equaling at least 1½ the amount of available appropriations for the Committee's determination for that grant cycle. 

 

(Source:  Added at 41 Ill. Reg. 10500, effective August 15, 2017)

 

Section 291.60  Criteria for Review of Grant Applications

 

a)         The Committee will consider the following criteria and assign point totals when determining grant recipients.  The Committee will only consider applications that have met the eligibility requirements of Section 291.30. 

 

1)         Equipment Need − 0-50 points

 

A)        The applicant does not currently own the requested item.

 

B)        The applicant currently owns one or more of an item being requested.

 

C)        The applicant is unable to acquire the equipment without a grant, cannot borrow the equipment on a consistent or need basis (due to geographical distance, availability, etc.), or the item represents a unique need for the district.

 

2)         Financial Need − 0-50 points

 

A)        Will be determined by considering the total budget of the applicant as an available resource.

 

B)        The cost of the equipment being requested is prohibitively expensive given the applicant's total budget.

 

b)         Those applicants receiving a grant in previous grant application cycles will not be considered until all applicants who have never received a grant but are requesting a grant have been considered as provided in Section 291.55(d). 

 

(Source:  Amended at 41 Ill. Reg. 10500, effective August 15, 2017)

 

Section 291.70  Terms and Conditions of Grant Agreement

 

An applicant that has been approved to receive a grant under this program must enter into a Grant Agreement with the Office.  The Grant Agreement shall contain, at a minimum, the following terms:

 

a)         Grant recipients may receive advance payment for the purchase of equipment approved as part of the grant application.

 

b)         Grant proceeds shall be used exclusively for the purposes listed in Section 291.20 and shall be expended in accordance with this Part and the Grant Agreement.

 

c)         In the event that the grant proceeds are not expended in the manner approved, the grant recipient, upon written notification from the Office, shall refund the full amount of the grant award.  Recovery of grant funds shall be accomplished in accordance with the Illinois Grant Funds Recovery Act [30 ILCS 705].

 

d)         Use of grant proceeds shall be accounted for in accordance with standard accounting practices.  The grant recipient shall provide documentation concerning the purchase of the equipment specified in the grant application, the cost of the equipment and the delivery of the equipment to the grant recipient by the vendor.

 

e)         Grant recipients shall submit to the Office a report detailing how the grant proceeds were used.  This expenditure report, to be submitted on a form supplied by the Office, shall be due not later than nine months following receipt of the grant.

 

f)         The grant recipient is responsible for monitoring possession, use, condition and final disposition of the items purchased with grant funds.

 

g)         Grant proceeds shall be included in the grant recipient's budget.

 

h)         The availability of grant proceeds is subject to availability of appropriated State funds.

 

(Source:  Amended at 41 Ill. Reg. 10500, effective August 15, 2017)

 

Section 291.80  Request for Reconsideration

 

a)         Those applicants whose grant applications are denied by the Committee shall be notified by mail.

 

b)         Notice of denial of a grant shall be deemed received on the date of the postmark. The applicant has 30 calendar days from that date to forward to the Committee a Request for Reconsideration.

 

c)         The Request for Reconsideration of a denial of a requested grant shall be submitted to the Office of the State Fire Marshal, Attention:  Small Equipment Grant Program, 1035 Stevenson Drive, Springfield, Illinois 62703-4259 and shall be deemed submitted on the date of the postmark.

 

d)         The Request for Reconsideration of a denial of a requested grant may be accompanied by supporting documents and information not previously considered by the Committee.  The Committee shall review the Request for Reconsideration.  A denial of the Request for Reconsideration shall be final.  While a Request for Reconsideration is pending, the grant application that is the subject of the Request for Reconsideration shall be deemed denied.

 

(Source:  Amended at 41 Ill. Reg. 10500, effective August 15, 2017)