Carl Wedige

From: Rodney Hitzfelder

Sent: Monday, February 01, 2010 7:46 AM
To: Charles N. Hood
Cc: Carl Wedige; Erik Walsh
Subject: Stimulus Money Situation

Charles,

I didn't get a chance to fill you in on the meeting with Erik, Carl, Betty and Debbie on Friday. It appears that our target to
build 50 and 51 may be greatly impacted by federal requirements - up to an additional year delay. We found this out
Thursday and I wanted Erik to know asap. Carl and I explained to him that a year is not a short delay, and that the new,
displaced engine and truck company will cost us $2.6 million a year and provide little service to the target area.
Addtionally, the 2nd TRT plan really doesn't work under these circumstances. We compared $2.6M to the grant for 51's
and decided that we are not coming out ahead waiting a whole year. Complaints will come from FF's, Union, residents,
council, etc. We don't feel 50's is the same situation since we are already providing service from a good temp location.

Discussion was had about:

1. Just keep going (not good).

2. Reject entire grant and seek shortfall funds.
3. Try to reject 51's funds only, and keep 50's funds. Seek shortfall funds.
4. Try to move 51's funds to another project in the near future.

The discussion Friday ended with the following scenarion:

1. Inform the appropriate council people and CM.

2. Erik will contact Intergovernmental Relations Dept. to advise them.
3. Contact Ciro Rodriquez (since he jumped on the Media announcement initially ) and advise him that this timeline is not
in line with our needs (maybe mayor contact or trip to DC). FEMA stated to me that "shovel ready" was nbt a term in their
lexicon.
4. Plan trip to DC to personnaly contact congressional delegation by "chiefs in dress uniforms" to ask that Stimulus funds
for #51 be separated from #50, and be moved to another project. We should consider either 27, 28 or maybe 52 (infill).

Let me know if you want to talk more on this. This info is close hold at this time.

RH
CITY OF SAN ANTONIO Office of the City Manager
P. 0. BOX 839966
SAN ANTONIO TEXAS 78283-3966

February 5, 2010

Congressman Ciro Rodriguez

2351 Rayburn HOB
Washington, DC 20515

RE: ARRA Grant for 2 new San Antonio Fire Stations

Dear Congressman Rodriguez:

In October 2009„ the City of San Antonio received a notice of a grant award for a total of $7.3 million in
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds to build 2 new fire stations to serve the citizens of San
Antonio. These 2 fire stations will serve people in 2 underserved areas of the City and reduce
response times from 8 minutes to 4.55 minutes.

We are very happy to receive such a grant award, however, the grant originally was expected to cause a
6 month delay in the completion of the facilities. At first, the City had intended to have these 2 stations
operational in October 2010 when two new fire companies are ready to occupy them and provide service.
As a result of some added green building design and construction requirements of the Federal
Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) we committed to our community that these fire stations would
be operational by April 2011. Two new companies are planned to be temporarily housed in the nearest
fire facility that has space. Housing the new companies at existing facilities is a transitional solution but
does not afford our community with the level of service that they would receive if the new stations were
built in the locations that we have selected (see attached service area maps).

Unfortunately, we have run into a few more hurdles in this process. We had expected to start preparing
the necessary environmental permits for these 2 projects months ago. However, FEMA had advised us
that we should not move forward with environmental clearance until we received notice that such
clearance was necessary. On January 25, 2010, a conference call with FEMA was held and we were told
that as a condition of the ARRA grant, an Environmental Assessment is required for each fire station. An
Environmental Assessment will take 60 days and review/approval by FEMA would take could take up to 3
additional months to complete. In addition, FEMA has not provided a timeline for review of our project
budget but we are told that FEMA has 6 months to get back with us. This will delay our project by a total
of almost a year which is not acceptable to our citizens.

We are asking your assistance in getting FEMA to move more quickly on the budget and environmental
reviews so that we may keep our commitments to our neighborhoods and begin providing a higher level
of fire protection. The City has already invested $2.6 million dollars in annual costs to bring on two full fire
companies to serve this area and we are unable to realize the service improvement commensurate with
that cost. The safety of our community is too important to wait another year, therfore, we are also
considering requesting the grant for a replacement fire station if FEMA is unable to respond to our needs
for these new fire stations in a manner that is more timely than they are currently indicating.

Sincerely,

Erik Walsh
Assistant City Manager
 Fire Department Stimulus Grant Award
Original Project Completion Timelines

Fire Station #50: November 2010

Fire Station #51: October 2010

Stimulus Grant Award

• FEMA originally said that projects funded could not be supplanted (already included in
the budget). These Fire Stations had already been included in the FY 2010 Capital
Improvements Budget and they were shovel-ready. In fact, a groundbreaking ceremony
for Fire Station #51 took place in April 2009. FEMA decided it was most important to
fund shovel-ready projects and decided to fund these supplanted projects.
• Assistance to Firefighter Grant awarded to COSA on October 2, 2009 in the amount of
$7.3 million. The grant is for the partial funding of Fire Stations #50 and #51.
• Revised Project Timeline (due to grant requirements)
o Fire Station #50: May 2011
o Fire Station #51: April 2011
• Proposed Operational Plan as a result of revised timeline:
o Fire Station #50: temporary station #50 and Engine #50 will continue to service
the area. (would change locations)
o Fire Station #51: Engine #51 to open at Fire Station #34 and Truck #51 to open
at Fire Station #47 in October of 2010 as scheduled.

Grant Requirements and Costs to Acce pt Grant

FEMA required the City to participate in an environmental and historic preservation review
(Initial information submitted in October of 2009):
o Increase the scope of the projects to include LEED Silver certification
o Add full fire sprinkler system to each project
o Add a diesel exhaust system to each project

Cost to accept the grant: The City redesigned the building plans to meet these requirements.
The cost to the City to accept the grant and fulfill these requirements is $1.6 million.

• October 2009 - available environmental information for Station #50 and #51 was
submitted as requested. City was informed that review would take up to 180 days.

Updated Directions from FEMA

City was notified last week that a full Environmental Assessment (EA) would be required. CIMS
Environmental states that a minimum of 75 days would be required to complete the EA with the
assistance of a consultant. The federal government then has 180 days to review.
• The City is currently awaiting a call back from the Grant Budget Office to determine the
timeline of a budget review that will also be required.

Impact to Project Timeline:

Project completion dates for both Fire Stations have been delayed by at least one year after the
original project completion dates.
o Fire Station 50: November 2011
o Fire Station 51: October 2011
6/10/2010