Earlier this month the Honey Brook Fire Company received official notification from the Office of the State Fire Commissioner that they would be receiving $13,789.79 through the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency with a department matching of amount of 1,240.21 for a total of $15,030. The awarded monies will be used for three projects this year from purchasing new radios, the purchase of a response tracking software known and IamResponding and turnout gear boots for our members.

The first of the projects and most expensive will be to purchase several radios that are multi-band capable, meaning they can operate on different frequencies. Chester County began operating on it's new 700/800 MHz digital Harris Radio system in the beginning of January. With this switch over comes the fielding of new radios provided by Chester County for each piece of apparatus to include Mobile Radios and Portable Radios and provided the option of paying the difference between the basic model radio (only capable of operating in one radio frequency range) and the multi-band radio (capable of operating in UHF/VHF/400-500 MHZ and 700/800 MHZ ranges). Since Honey Brook Fire Company is responsible for primary fire coverage to parts of Caernarvon and Salisbury Townships in Lancaster County the Company decided to look at how best to save costs and duplication of buying multiple radios for each piece of apparatus for the three Counties we respond to for calls. This portion of the project will purchase 3 Portable Radios and 4 Mobile Radios for the apparatus at a cost of $10,526.00.

The second project will be for the purchase and implementation of a response tracking program called IamResponding. This software allows members to to status themselves within the department when responding to emergencies or when they are out of the area. IaR is used by multiple agencies throughout the Country. It offers a messaging and mapping system that is sent out to the members from the 911 Center and allows for tracking of department related activities. Once this is up and running members are able to view all this information from their Smartphone, and computer and there will be two large screen monitors in the station so members will know who is responding. Total costs for this program and hardware is $3,024.00.

The final project is to purchase 5 new sets of turn out boots for our members to replace ones that are worn out and no longer serviceable for a cost of $1480.00.

This grant program is a great asset to all Fire and Ambulance companies throughout the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and we would like to thank State Fire Commissioner Solobay and his staff for their assistance in providing this program annually to our volunteers.