Council OK's fire department grant purchase

The Cathlamet Town Council voted 5-0 Monday to authorize the Cathlamet Fire Department to proceed with purchase of equipment with a $45,000 grant from the Federal Emergency Management Administration.

The vote went against the recommendation of Mayor George Wehrfritz. He suggested the council delay action until its April meeting so it could hear comments from state auditors who have been examining the town's books since last November.

Wehrfritz suggested there could be several problems with the grant, including these concerns:

--There is no record of the council approving the application for the grant, he said, and the council is supposed to approve all grant applications.

--Auditors might question some of the budget figures listed in the grant. He noted that the application states the department budget is only $35,000 but it is actually closer to $250,000.

--The application states that the department has first response responsibilities for an area of 20 square miles, which is much larger than the area inside the city limits.

Assistant Chief Fred Johnson and fireman Matt Beaulaurier, who prepared the grant application, addressed Wehrfritz's concerns.

The grant had been included in the town's 2009 and 2010 budget, Johnson said, so the council knew of it and had approved it.

The grant application wasn't successful those years, so Beaulaurier attended a FEMA workshop and went over the application with FEMA personnel to improve its chances.

The FEMA personnel had said that the grant could list only the budget for the fire division, not the whole department which includes the first aid division, Beaulaurier said.

"We used the same approach six years ago with another grant," Johnson said.

Johnson explained that the department has a contract with Fire District 4 for first response in the areas around Cathlamet, so the coverage area is larger than the town's city limits.

Council members examined the concerns and responses.

"If it was approved in the budget, it was approved," said Council Member Bob Rendler. "I seem to recall talking about this in the budget workshop."

Council Member David Goodroe recalled that the grant had been discussed at a 2009 budget workshop.

"I looked in the minutes for the past four years, and there's no mention that it was ever approved," Wehrfritz said. "What's your perspective?"

Johnson replied that budget action constituted approval. He added that the department staff had never been told that there was a policy or requirement to handle the applications differently. They would be happy to follow those protocols, he said, once they knew what the council expected.

"I would ask that the council approve this and we can go forward and purchase this protective equipment," Johnson said. "With the last FEMA grant, we didn't have any problems."

After much more discussion, the council passed two motions by 5-0 votes. One authorized amendments to the 2011 budget to allow the grant expenditure, with its $2,395 match from the town, and the second was to require that all town departments seek council approval before applying for grants.

Wehrfritz said the state auditors should finish their work soon, and an exit conference would be held before the council's April meeting.