Fire Truck Financing: Too poor for a grant?

Here's a very sad story that may happen more frequently
A department called and needed to borrow some money to pay their portion of a truck that would be primarily paid by a grant.

Unfortunately, the grant would not allow the department to use the truck as collateral. This is fairly standard practice to maximize the effectiveness of the grant.

However, the department did not have the funds to pay their portion and did not have any truck worth enough to qualify for a loan for their small portion of the truck.

So, they could not fund their portion of the purchase and had to give back the grant and not buy a truck.

In summary
Grants are a great way to acquire trucks but the devil is in the details. Make sure you have a comprehensive plan, including the grant, to purchase the entire truck. Gather facts and ask questions about grant restrictions early on in the process to know exactly how you can use the grant funding tool.

Stay safe!

John R. Hill
Apparatus Budgeting Consultant
ENVIZION Financial
www.envizionfire.com