{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://courtney.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/over-136000-federal-funding-awarded-columbia-volunteer-fire-department", "Over $136,000 in Federal Funding Awarded to the Columbia Volunteer Fire Department, Courtney Announces", "2022-09-20", "2022", "2022-09", "Democrat", "House", "CT", "Joe Courtney", "C001069", "courtney.house.gov", "courtney", "https://courtney.house.gov/media-center/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, DC \u2014 Today, Congressman Joe Courtney (CT-02) announced that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has awarded a new federal grant totaling more than $136,000 to the Columbia Volunteer Fire Department. The new grant award was dispersed through FEMA\u2019s Assistance to Firefighters Grants (AFG) program, and will enable the department to purchase new Firefighter Breathing Apparatuses\u2014the foundational tool that protects firefighters airways and lungs from toxic gas and harmful particles during a fire.\n\n\u201cThe Columbia men and women that make up the dedicated group of volunteers that serves our community would like to thank Congressman Courtney for his support and FEMA for awarding the Columbia Volunteer Fire Department Inc. this Assistance to Firefighters Grant,\u201d said Columbia Volunteer Fire Department Chief Steve Postemsky. \u201cThis ongoing support provided to small community fire departments is greatly appreciated. This grant will help us to acquire new air packs (SCBAs) that will be expiring next year. The AFG funding removes a large burden from the town and taxpayers that small communities like ours depend on.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe Columbia Volunteer Fire Department is essential to the town\u2019s safety and wellbeing of our residents and in return we feel it is vital that we provide the fire department with the necessary equipment needed to deliver important lifesaving services,\u201d said Steven Everett, First Selectman of the Town of Columbia. \u201cWe are appreciative of Congressman Courtney\u2019s level of support and FEMA for awarding the funds for this crucial equipment.\u201d\n\n\u201cThese are highly competitive federal grant dollars, and the Columbia Volunteer Fire Department deserves a lot of credit for going out there and successfully competing for them,\u201d said Rep. Courtney. \u201cThey were up against fire departments across the country for this grant award, they put together a strong application, and it\u2019s great now to see more federal resources coming home to support our local first responders. This grant award means that the Columbia fire department can purchase 18 new air packs\u2014an essential tool that our firefighters need to protect themselves while carrying out their work. We\u2019ve welcomed home more than $1.7 million in new federal funding for our firefighters recently, and I\u2019m glad I could lend my support to the Columbia Volunteer Fire Department\u2019s grant application.\u201d\n\nFEMA will present the Columbia Volunteer Fire Department an AFG award of $136,019.04, specifically to support the purchase of 18 new firefighter breathing apparatuses. Federal AFG awards have become highly competitive over the years and are competed for by fire departments throughout nationwide. On March 3, Rep. Courtney wrote to Chris Logan, Assistant Administrator for Grant Programs at FEMA, to weigh in with strong support for the Columbia Volunteer Fire Department\u2019s AFG grant application:\n\n\u201cColumbia Fire Department constitutes 34 volunteers who serve the town of Columbia, serving more than 5,000 residents and protecting several sites of significant infrastructure. The fire fighters of Columbia face risks with any fire call, however, they are burdened with the risk due to outdated and noncompliant SCBA air pack units.\n\n\u201cThe CVFD is responsible for responding to emergency affected infrastructure sites such as State Routes 6 and 66, rail lines operated by Worchester-Providence Railroad, and a natural gas pipeline that supplies a significant portion of gas to the Northeast. It is of utter necessity that these firefighters possess functioning equipment, especially considering the implications that fire damage to these sites hold. The fire department is requesting the grant in order to purchase 18 SCBA air pack units, one of the most vital pieces of equipment. CVFD strives to property maintain their units, but the reliability of the equipment decreases over time and needs to be replaced in order to be PPE compliant, and, above all else, protect these volunteers.\n\n\u201cThe Columbia Volunteer Fire Department provides indispensable services to its community and surrounding departments, and to continue to do so they must be able to sufficiently protect their firefighters\u2019 wellbeing. For this reason, I urge you to award full funding to this application.\u201d\n\nTo read the full letter, click here.\n\nToday\u2019s AFG award to the Columbia Fire Department represents the third round of federal support that Rep. Courtney has announced recently for local fire departments. On August 31st, Courtney shared that federal AFG awards totaling more than $887,000 would be awarded to five eastern CT fire departments in Chester, Preston, New London, Norwich, and West Stafford. That grant award helped local departments purchase essential new safety equipment, lifesaving medical devices, necessary firefighter training, and more.\n\nOn September 9th, Courtney announced the largest federal AFG award in eastern Connecticut since 2001\u2014an award of over $739,000 for the City of Groton that will support several local fire stations, including the City of Groton, the Center Groton Fire District, the Groton Long Point Fire Association, the Mystic Fire District, the Noank Fire District, the Old Mystic Fire Department, and the Poquonnock Bridge Fire District. The award will fund the purchase of an upgraded emergency communications system, enabling firefighters and first responders throughout Groton to integrate with the State of Connecticut\u2019s state-of-the-art, statewide emergency notifications system.\n\nToday\u2019s announcement brings the total amount of new federal support for eastern Connecticut firefighters to more than $1.76 million in just the last month.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T03:08:33Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://courtney.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/over-136000-federal-funding-awarded-columbia-volunteer-fire-department"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9743617847561836, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}