Firefighters to mayor: Don’t forget about us

With half of ARP still unallocated, Local 396 has list of needs

The City of Kokomo received nearly $20 million in American Recovery Plan (ARP) funds, thanks to a prolonged COVID-19 pandemic. And to date, about half of that money has been earmarked for various projects. But Firefighters Local 396 has yet to be included in those allocations.

Local 396 President Dan Guffey is hopeful that Mayor Tyler Moore won’t forget his members in the process. After all, he explained, the money initially was designed to compensate municipalities for shortfalls and expenses related to the pandemic. Guffey contended that the fire department was among those departments most drastically affected.

Restoring city ambulance service is just one of the projects Firefighters Local 396 believes the city administration could fund with ARP money.

“We understood that the federal government started with certain parameters, but we knew the rules would change,” said Guffey. “The city decided to wait. I get that. Within the last three or four months, a new set of rules came down, and the federal government said, ‘Hey, you can spend the money on all these things.’

“That was encouraging to us because some of the needs that the fire department has were included in those new rules. We’re hopeful that this administration and city council will look at the needs of the fire department and address them.”