WESTFIELD — The Westfield Village Board is considering a resolution allowing the fire department to apply for a $625,000 2020-21 FEMA grant to replace a 1996 E291 Pumper-Tanker fire engine.

The tanker is currently the oldest engine left in the Westfield Fire Department, and has been in active service for 25 years.

“The Fire Department is trying to secure assistance for grant funding to replace the vehicle,” said village administrator Vincent Luce. “It’s closing in on 25 years in service, and unfortunately none of these pieces of equipment are very cheap.”

Although fire department officials remains hopeful they will receive the grant, they face competition in trying to acquire new vehicles, while the part of the grant for vehicles is a low percentage of the whole grant.

“One reason the chief is not optimistic is if you look at the total grant available, apparatus replacement is only 15% of the whole pie,” Luce said. “There is a lot of competition most likely, and everyone needs money for the same thing. Just on sheer numbers and probability, it doesn’t look likely, but it also doesn’t hurt to try.”

The biggest reason the board needed to approve was that, per terms of the grant, there would be a required 5% match of the grant from the community, totaling $31,250 the community would have to spend.

The motion for approval passed through the board, though there is not an exact timeline laid out by the fire department on when they’ll find out if they’re actually approved. The board is also looking into other possible grant options.

“We’re working on contacting USDA Rural Development, they have a program we’ve looked into in the past,” Luce said. “Sometimes it helps to revisit things because demographics do change. It wasn’t cost feasible in the past, but we’ll look into it again.”

One last thing covered at the meeting was the approval to restart recreational programs for kids in first through sixth grade. Recreation Director Andrew Webster approached the board about opening up programs previously, and the board was initially apprehensive.

The latest guidelines from the state allowing high contact high school sports to play has allowed the town recreation programs to re-open, though it is currently only limited to basketball. This program is only open to residents of Westfield.