Congressman McHenry Announces $179,048 Homeland Security Grant to Mountain View

Congressman Patrick McHenry (R-NC-10) announced $179,048 in a U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) grant to a local fire department in the Tenth Congressional District.

The grant will go to the Mountain View Volunteer Fire Department in Catawba County, and comes in the sixteenth round of the 2014 fiscal year Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program (AFG), which aims to help firefighters and first responders throughout the country. Local departments applied for the grants, and the program is administered by the Grant Programs Directorate of the Federal Emergency Management Agency in cooperation with the U.S. Fire Administration.

According Mountain View Fire Chief Tony Holsclaw, the grant funds will replace 22 of the department's old air packs as well as an air compressor used for refilling firefighters air packs.

"I want to congratulate Chief Holsclaw and his department on writing a successful grant," commented Congressman McHenry. "Keeping up-to-date breathing apparatus is crucial to protecting our district's fire service and this grant will serve the Mountain View VFD for years to come."

A panel of fire experts at DHS awards AFG grants through a competitive review process. Congressman McHenry hosts workshops for Tenth District EMS and fire departments to help guide personnel through the process and give them an inside view of what the committee looks for. The workshops are taught by Cherryville Fire Chief Jeff Cash, a nationally recognized expert in his field and former member of DHS's AFG review committee. Since Congressman McHenry and Chief Cash began the program, Tenth District EMS and fire departments have consistently won more grants than departments in most of North Carolina's other Congressional Districts.

Fairview is one of eight Tenth District departments to receive AFG funding thus far during the 2014 cycle with a total of $1,153,944 in AFG funds having been awarded among those departments.

Grants will continue to be announced in weekly rounds through the coming months.

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