By Suzanne Hoholik
The Columbus Dispatch
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ninety-three fire and emergency medical agencies across Ohio that were awarded a combined $362,433 in state grants last year failed to claim the money.
The state Emergency Medical Services Division gives out about $4 million annually to local departments for equipment and training.
The money can be used for emergency medical training or to buy equipment such as blood-pressure cuffs, defibrillators, laptops and ambulances. Grants are as much as $15,000.
The agencies are told of the award, have several months to spend the amount and are given a deadline for turning in receipts to be reimbursed.
“If we don’t (hear back from departments), we get ahold of them and say, ‘You’re reaching the deadline to authorize the draw on the money,’” said Richard Rucker, executive director of the EMS Division.
The local departments had until June 30, the end of the state’s fiscal year, to make their purchases and until Sept. 30 to turn in receipts, he said.
Unclaimed money rolls over to the next year’s grant fund. But there is a problem: Other agencies could have received larger grants, Rucker said.
“Sometimes, it’s a breakdown at the agency,” he said. “Several years ago, a chief retired. He dealt with the grants, and no one knew what to do.”
One year, about $1 million in grants went unused.
A change in ownership and three managers in one year is why Fayette County Emergency Medical Services Inc. didn’t collect the $8,000 grant it was awarded last year.
“I’m surprised that we had grant money we didn’t use,” said Lori Blackburn, who took over as the agency’s manager a couple of weeks ago. “It’s always beneficial. It may have got applied for by one person and not relayed to someone else.”
It was “sheer oversight” that the Circleville Fire and EMS Department didn’t spend the $4,000 it was awarded, said Fire Chief Timothy J. Tener.
In the past, the state sent checks, but now it asks for receipts for reimbursement. That, along with the state’s fiscal year not coinciding with the calendar year of his department, made things confusing, he said.
The agency had planned to use the money to pay for one person to go to paramedic school.
“Whenever we can get money to get reimbursed for something, I want to be able to use it,” Tener said. “Shame on us. Shame on me for not wisely using the award of $4,000.”
The New Lexington Fire Department was awarded a $9,000 grant that officials there planned to use to buy two laptops for electronic patient records.
“The city didn’t have the funds in time to make the purchase,” said David Nutter, New Lexington’s EMS coordinator.
The state allows agencies to fill out hardship applications if they don’t have the upfront money.
Each of these agencies said it will apply again for a grant.
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