St. Regis Falls Fire Ambulance Inc. has been awarded $153,362 in federal funding to update equipment and modify facilities. The money is allocated through the Department of Homeland Security Federal Emergency Management Agency's Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program, in cooperation with the Department's United States Fire Administration.
"We're actually tickled to death," said St. Regis Falls Ambulance Board member Mike Bailey about winning the grant.
"This funding is going to dry up," he added, thinking about President Donald Trump's budget proposal and the diminished support for such programs.
Bailey said some of the money, among other needs, will go to update the defibrillators. And some will pay for lifts designed to support heavier patients.