a) Applicants must have participated in the National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) for a minimum of two years prior to the application for the fire station rehabilitation and construction grant, except that fire departments that were issued a Fire Department Identification Number by the Office less than two years prior to the application are eligible to apply for a fire station rehabilitation and construction grant if they participated in NFIRS since the date their FDID was issued by the Office. The applicant must have an active registration under the Grant Accountability and Transparency Act (GATA) [30 ILCS 708] and a status of "qualified" on the GATA Grantee Portal (https://grants.illinois.gov/portal) at the time the application is submitted. The applicant must also have its own FEIN issued by the Internal Revenue Service for federal income tax purposes.

b) Fire protection entities that are not a unit of local government are not eligible to apply for a grant under this program.

c) Units of local government that do not operate a fire department are not eligible for grants under this program.

d) Applicants must demonstrate that the fire station for which the grant is sought will continue to be operated by the applicant as a fire station for at least 10 years, or a longer period as may be identified in the Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) issued by the Office. If, within 10 years after the completion of the project for which a grant was made under this Part, or within a longer period as may be identified in the NOFO issued by the Office, the grant recipient ceases to use the fire station as a fire station, the grant recipient shall refund to the Office a prorated amount of the grant based on the number of months the grant recipient was not in compliance (for example, out of a total of 120 months if the compliance period is 10 years). Any partial month of noncompliance shall be included in the repayment amount.

e) A minimum of 60% of grant funds per funding opportunity shall be set aside for volunteer or combination fire departments. If this percentage cannot be met due to the lack of approved applications from these types of fire departments, the remaining funds may be allocated to non-volunteer or non-combination fire departments.