From the News-Star: Although the Shawnee (Okla.) Fire Department received approval for $97,500 in federal grant money for new sprinklers and fire alarms at the city’s three stations, the department has rejected the bids for those installations. Chief Jimmy Gibson said FEMA approved the amount as one award, although the bidding process involved six individual sections.

“While two of the alarm bids came in under budget, the others were over, and, according to the guidelines of the grant, all of the projects must be done for the monies to be awarded,” he said in an interview with the News-Star.


Once the complete costs of the projects were determined, which included some work to water lines that hadn’t been originally considered, installation of the alarms and sprinklers would’ve put the city about $41,000 over budget — even with the grant money.


Currently, none of the city’s three stations have fire alarms or suppression systems, so the project would include a complete engineering plan, in addition to the installation.
Gibson said current codes do not require the stations have the alarms or sprinkler systems installed at the stations.