Fire Station Doors

Program Description 

The vehicle bay doors at the four Great Falls Fire Stations are all approximately 40-50 years old.  Many of  the mechanical features date back to the 1970s.  The constant wear and tear has taken a toll on the hardware.  Door panels, springs, rollers, and other components have been replaced repeatedly.  As time moves on, however, the specific parts are becoming harder and harder to find.  This proposal will use ARPA funds to install new doors and mountings at each of the four stations.

Why this matters

 An improperly operating door means that a fire company will have to open a door by hand, use alternative building bays, change travel route, or be hampered in a variety of other ways.  This may result in a delayed arrival at the scene of any emergency.  The National Fire Protection Agency standard response time is six minutes from call to arrival on the scene.  Meeting this standard means that the Fire Department must be capable of acting at full efficiency at a moments notice.  The current doors are a potential limitation on this efficiency and need to be replaced.

How is this eligible?

The United States Department of the Treasury allows local governments that lost revenue (i.e. lost taxes, utility payments, etc.) during the COVID-19 pandemic to use ARPA funds, up to the amount of revenue lost, for government services.  This category is extremely discretionary and allows for funds to be used for any service traditionally provided by a government.  Treasury’s Final Rule allowed local governments to claim a standard allowance of $10 million in lost revenue.  The City of Great Falls (which did not experience financial losses during the pandemic) took this standard allowance and may spend up to $10 million of its total allocation to pay for its traditional government services.