By Doug Carman, Staff Writer
EAST WINDSOR — The township got back the money it gave to the East Windsor Volunteer Fire Company No. 1 to help it purchase personal protective equipment, long after the Federal Emergency Management Administration, or FEMA, awarded a grant to the firefighters for that purpose.
Fire Chief Kevin Brink and past Fire Chief James McCann, who applied for the FEMA grant, presented a $50,160 check to the township at Tuesday evening’s council meeting, nearly a year after Mayor Janice Mironov announced that the Fire Department received a grant totaling the same amount.
Mayor Mironov said after the meeting that the money will go to the township’s capital account.
”It would have a huge impact on our funds,” she said, alluding to next year’s budget.
In June, Mayor Mironov announced that EWVFC No. 1 was awarded the grant during the federal government’s 2009 Assistance to Firefighters Grant program, intended to fund the protective equipment, referred to by the firefighters as “turn-out gear.”
At Tuesday evening’s meeting, however, Mayor Mironov said that it took a long amount of time for FEMA to actually send the money, and meanwhile the fire company needed the equipment, so the town gave the fire company the $50,160 to cover the purchases.
Mayor Mironov said Wednesday that the company only received the money a couple of months ago.

