Applicant Name: Sellersburg Volunteer Fire Department, Inc.

Awarded Amount: $161,250

Please describe in full the project that you are requesting to be funded.

The Sellersburg Volunteer Fire Department, Inc. is seeking $179,167.00 to implement a continuing pro-active “Wellness and Fitness Program.” This program will be broad based and include all personnel categories, fire suppression, EMS, office/clerical, and shop/maintenance. We will make mandatory the medical surveillance and immunizations, the exercise and fitness will be voluntary butstrongly promoted through an incentive program.

The medical surveillance will follow N.F.P.A. 1582 and will be overseen by a contracted health services agency that specializes in workplace medical services. The medical surveillance will consist of a comprehensive exam by a physician, hearing, vision, Spirometry/pulmonary function, blood and urine lab test, cardiac stress test, Echocardiogram, and chest X-ray. We currently offer Hepatitis “B” vaccine series and semi-annual TB testing. We currently have twenty-five personnel that have not received the Hepatitis “B” series and all personnel will be due for TB testing soon.

A complete exercise and fitness program will be designed and implemented by a certified personnel trainer and overseen by the physician within the medical surveillance program. An emphasis will be placed upon individual and group fitness that closely follows job specific duties and tasks. In the year 2000 we had thirty Workers Compensation Insurance claims, the majority involved lifting injuries. We have spent many hours training on proper technique. We now need to strengthen and tone for greater success. We will be obtaining a variety of exercise equipment for both cardio and strength training. The incentives are use of equipment and annual awards for various category including lost weight, gained strength, and over all health improvements.

We receive the almost daily National Fire Academy e-mail listing “Line Of Duty Deaths”. We see the “trend” to the negative, of increasing “Heart Attack” type deaths. The Sellersburg Volunteer Fire Department seeks the funds so that we can save countless lives through prevention and Wellness.

Please provide a detailed description of your planned uses of the grant funds for each major budget category as listed on the budget form (SF 20-20).

WELLNESS/HEALTH Contractual Initial Medical Examinations Cost Medical Exam $118.00 Audiometry $18.00 Spirometry $25.00 Comp. Metabolic Panel $25.00 Lipid Profile $34.00 Cardiac Stress Test $300.00 Echocardiogram $350.00 Chest X-ray $100.00 Personal Trainer $4,000.00 Sub-total $970.00 X 132 = $132,040.00 Immunizations Cost Hepatitis “B” vaccine series cost $73.00 X 25 = $1825.00 TB Testing twice a year $24.00 X 132 = 3168.00 Sub-total $4,993.00 Equipment Exercise Equipment Cost 1 Lifefitness 4 station Multi-gym $8,400.00 4 Lifefitness TR9100 treadmill $25,600.00 1 Lifefitness Upright Bike $2,499.00 1 Lifefitness Cross Trainer $4,499.00 1 16X16 Rubber Mat $1,136.00 Sub-total $42,134.00 FIRE Act Grant amount $161,250.00 SVFD 10% Match $17,917.00 Total $179,167.00

Please explain why this program would be beneficial to your community and/or to your department.

The benefits to the community and the Sellersburg Volunteer Fire Department are numerous, but I hope to be able to capture some of the strong points in this answer. Being a Volunteer/Combination Paid Fire Department we truly have a very broad range of people comprising of our fire department. Our most senior member is a soon to be 79 year old and our youngest “Explorer Scout” just turned 14. That comparison was only ages but, we have many other differences within our department, education levels, socio-economic, family heritage and gender only to name a few. The common denominator is that no specific program currently exists for the evaluation and treatment of medical situations for our personnel .

This program will enable us to have fewer injuries and physically stronger and more complete personnel. This program should allow us to cut workers compensation bills which would allow for more funds to be available for other services. We will be able to provide a safer more hospitable workplace and hopefully reduce injuries. All of these factors will greatly enhance the service that the community is receiving. Healthier personnel equals a better, safer, more efficient service. We will have all personnel that are part of the solution and not part of the problem.

Please explain why this project cannot be funded solely through local funding.

This project cannot be funded locally due to a rapid growth in local population that the infrastructure (Emergency Services, Utilities, Government) has not prepared for. The Sellersburg Volunteer Fire Department, in the last ten years has grown from Two stations and 100% Volunteer to seven stations with sixty paid personnel seventy-two volunteer. In 1993 we were forced to start providing transport ambulance service due to the bankruptcy closing of a private ambulance provider. Our EMS has grown from one BLS ambulance 24/7 to seven ALS ambulances and four Paramedic non-transport units 24/7. This rapid increase in service has not been supported by tax dollars, currently less than 25% of our budget comes from tax money. The balance is self generated through EMS revenue and contracts. We are simply stretched to the limit!