SWEETWATER COUNTY — The Sweetwater County Commission voted unanimously to reject a Volunteer Fire Assistance (VFA) grant in the amount of $19,275 during its meeting Tuesday.

The grant required a 50 percent match of that total amount which would have come out of the county’s budget to go toward wildland protection equipment for the Green River Fire Department (GRFD).

The VFA program provides grant funding through the Wyoming State Forestry Division to organize, equip, and train small town fire departments which serve populations under 10,000, according to Sweetwater County Grants Manager Krisena Marchal.

Marchal said that Sweetwater County originally submitted a generic request without a specified project. It described the county’s current fire protection arrangement with Sweetwater County Fire District #1, Wamsutter, and Green River, but did not specify the exact project. She said that the State Forestry Division funded every single grant application they received at 100 percent.

“It was concluded that the money would be used to acquire equipment for the City of Green River Fire Department for wildland protection. This project must be closed out by October 21, 2023, and it would be used for fire shelters, practice fire shelters, AED’ss, wildland boots, pants, and shirts,” she said.

However, she said that the required cash match was not approved in the grant’s project budget.

“The required cash match was unfortunately not included in the grant project’s budget, which sometimes happens, but we did not have permission prior to earmark county funding or obligate county funding,” she said.

Marchal explained that while the GRFD provides fire protection services within specified areas in Sweetwater County, which are reimbursed under a fee schedule, the GRFD is not an eligible entity under the VFA program.

“In itself, it is unfortunately not eligible to apply for VFA funding. This is federal funding and it is subject to the uniform administrative requirements, cost principles, and audit requirements,” she said.

“I do also want to note that in your grant agreement… it does reference the state operating procedures, which indicate that this is truly for the most needy and rural communities. I have since submitting this packet spoken with State Forestry, the assistant fire management officer… he has stated to me that this is a very cloudy and muddy project,” she continued.

She said that the funding that was awarded to the county for the GRFD would not go back to the federal government, but would instead stay in Wyoming. She said it is part of a three-year grant award to the state.

“I also want to emphasize the City of Green River has done nothing wrong, in fact, the City of Green River Fire Department, Wamsutter, and Fire District #1 are terrific partners. It’s just I think there may have been some miscommunication about this project,” Marchal said.

She said that in talking with the Sweetwater County Fire Warden Jim Zimmerman, she recommends that the county do not approve the grant award.

“I’ve taken this advice of the state that maybe we could use this year to clarify the responsibilities and discuss with Green River how to get them eligible,” Marchal said. “…We’re an eligible entity, they’re not. Their primary focus should be the city and that’s what is giving some concern at the state level.” 

“This Sets a Bad Precedence”

The Commission took turns explaining why they were voting against this grant, citing the grant match and the process in which this grant application took place.

Chairman Keaton West said that he has already had the opportunity to discuss this issue with Green River Mayor Pete Rust and Green River City Administrator Reed Clevenger.

“I told them by no means are we trying to get sideways with a neighboring relationship, it’s just we felt like this is probably not applicable to the current setup with what we have going on,” West said. “A lot of us weren’t informed as to the $20,000 match. I think they’re ok, it doesn’t seem like there’d be any waves there.”

Commissioner Island Richards said that the county needs to be careful with how they go about grant applications.

“We need to be really careful about how we navigate the landmines of grant applications and not poisoning the well from which we draw. I think by voting this down, we show the state and the federal government that we’re not just chasing money for the sake of chasing money, and that we want to do things right,” Richards said.

Commissioner Lauren Schoenfeld said that this whole process has set a “bad precedence” moving forward with grant applications.

“We have to work together to support these efforts and look at what’s in the best interest of the county, and have those discussions and make those decisions before grant applications are turned in,” Schoenfeld said. “As a whole, the Commission should have been involved in that conversation before this happened instead of after the fact.”

Commissioner Robb Slaughter said that he opposes the way this grant application was handled, stating that county personnel had discussions with the City of Green River about this grant.

“We have a grants coordinator who had looked at this issue and decided not to apply for this grant. We had one of our personnel who circumvented that and went out for this and had discussions with the city about performing this function while we have an agreement with the Green River Fire Department,” Slaughter said.

“I believe it was done in a very poor fashion on our part. I believe it puts us in a very poor light in doing that,” he added “I definitely think it’s something we need to watch and take care of.”

The Commission voted 0-5 to not approve the grant award.