North Aurora turns down federal money

The North Aurora Fire Protection District is turning down $650,280 it had asked for from the federal government.

While grateful to have received the grant, which would have paid for adding six firefighters, it came with conditions trustees think the district can now ill afford.

"While it is hard to turn down government money, sometimes it is just not as shiny as it looks," Fire Chief Steve Miller said.

The terms of the grant required that the district put up $1.3 million of its own money, over four years. After that, the district would be responsible for 100 percent of the cost of keeping the firefighters. It would have to keep them at least five years, or repay the federal dollars.

The district applied for the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency 18 months ago, when North Aurora was in a boom of building new houses and stores. It anticipated that it would need at least 6 more firefighters to handle continued growth.

"When we made application, boy, everything was moving along," Miller said.

But that's ground to a near-halt with the national economic crisis.

And the grant is an all-or-nothing deal, Miller said; there's no ability to take less.

Miller said the fire board studied current staffing levels, budget restraints, response trends and future capital needs before deciding to turn down the grant, and that the district has enough staff to handle the calls it has now.

It is free to reapply for the grant.

North Aurora was one of six agencies in Illinois to receive a 2008 SAFER grant, out of 143 nationwide.