Jacksonville Police will receive about $57,000 and Oxford Police are set to receive about $30,000 from grants approved by the Calhoun County Commission Thursday. The commission figures in the process of funneling the federal money down to local levels.
Both departments will use the money to help them pay for their electronic communication systems.
“We’re glad,” said Jacksonville Police Chief Tommy Thompson. “It helps greatly.”
The funding will pay for most of the $90,000 cost of implementing the department’s new system. The largest portion of the remaining cost was paid for by fire departments in the Jacksonville area. A smaller portion of the funding was provided by the City of Jacksonville.
“Without (the grant) we would not have even considered (implementing the system),” said Thompson. “The (city) wouldn’t have been able to fund it entirely.”
The funding has been in the works for months, but has required time to work its way through to the departments. The commission’s approval means the departments are one step closer to receiving the funding, though the checks can’t be written just yet.
The departments still have to itemize and report what the money will be used for.
“We’ve known we we’re going to get this money for over a year now. It has just taken this long to get it through the system,” Thompson said.
The money will be used to reimburse the departments for money already spent purchasing their respective communication systems. The Jacksonville department will use the money to pay for its Computer Aided Dispatch system and the system’s installation. The Oxford department will use most of the money to pay for Dell laptops.
In other business, the commission:
• Approved a liquor license for Express Mart 17 for Alabama 204 in Wellington.
• Issued a nuisance abatement for 511 Howe Street in Weaver.
• Declared properties nuisances at 673 Mark Green Road in Jacksonville; 4829 Taylor Ave. in Anniston; Mountain Side Circle in Anniston and 3214 Old Sulphur Springs in Wellington.
• Appointed Jerome Freeman and Mike Fincher to the Calhoun County 911 District Board.
• Approved $2,875 in annual funding from the state for the Calhoun County Emergency Management Agency.
• Approved a measure reducing the budget for Environmental Services Cooperative Agreement, from which money for cleanup at McClellan is drawn, by about $1.5 million. It also approved a recommendation to defer an additional $2.5 million for 2012.
• Approved a uniform contract agreement with Unifirst to outfit some county departments for a year.
• Approved a change order to decrease the cost of energy efficiency improvements at the Calhoun County Jail by $645.
• Passed a resolution to allow Jennifer Yates, the Recycling Outreach Coordinator for Calhoun County Recycling, to apply for financial aid.
• Allocated $25,000 to the White Plains Youth Association to construct public restrooms at its ball fields.
