Today, Congressman Patrick McHenry announced $53,343 in U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) grants to local fire departments in Cleveland County.

The grants will go to the Grover Rural Volunteer Fire Department in the amount of $31,588 and to the Number Seven Township Volunteer Fire Department in the amount of $21,755.  Both departments serve largely rural response areas of Cleveland County.

These grants come in the eleventh round of this year’s 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 Department’s Preparedness Directorate’s Office of Grants and Training. 

“Cleveland County fire departments have been very successful in earning AFG Grants in recent years,” Congressman McHenry stated.  “In fact, the largest AFG Grant ever awarded in the State of North Carolina was a regional grant for just under $1 million in 2006 and every fire department in Cleveland County got a portion of that.” 

Last fiscal year, twenty-eight departments in the Tenth Congressional District received AFG funding for a total of $3,138,123 in funds disbursed.  Thus far in this year’s fiscal cycle, $471,496 has been awarded to departments in the Tenth District.

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