Congressional members have helped secure funding to assist a volunteer fire district in the Hudson Valley.
The $207,000 in federal funding is for the Vails Gate Fire District in Orange County. The funding is via the Department of Homeland Security’s Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response, or SAFER, grant program. Vails Gate will use the grant, in part, for a tuition reimbursement program to help recruit firefighters. U.S. Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney had announced earlier in the week that nearly $1.5 million in federal funding will allow the City of Newburgh Fire Department to hire nine firefighters. It marks Newburgh’s third consecutive SAFER grant, which, the lawmakers say, is welcome, but unusual.
