January 18, 2007 - (Washington, D.C.) – U.S. Sen. David Vitter announced today that the St. Tammany Fire Protection District #4 will receive a federal grant of more than $1.2 million to meet the growing needs of the department. “This funding will help St. Tammany Parish employ more firefighters,” said Vitter. “Firefighters and other first responders have always been an important part of each community, but Hurricanes Katrina and Rita really illustrated that for us,” said Vitter. This grant of $1,242,000 will be used to support the St. Tammany Fire Protection District #4 and help them increase the number of frontline firefighters. In the time since Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana, the population of Mandeville has grown by more than 15,000 people, and this growth has created a great need for more firefighters. Merrick Tassin, chief of Fire District #4, said, “Essentially this is going to help us hire 12 new firefighters. That will assist us toward the goal of having an adequate number of firefighters on each fire truck.” The funding is provided by the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response Grant Program at the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Grants and Training in cooperation with the U.S. Fire Administration. |