Various agencies around the county will receive about $640,000 in homeland security grants to buy new equipment that should help make the region safer, officials said Friday.
Several organizations in the county, including schools, police departments and ambulance services, submitted 12 different applications seeking some of the $9.3 million homeland security pot for Maine.
Of those 12, eight were funded, either fully or in part, Oxford County Emergency Management Director Scott Parker said Friday.
The Maine Emergency Management Agency had to select a fraction of the requests made from organizations throughout Maine. The agency issued 59 grants and received 170 requests, according to Bruce Fitzgerald of Maine Emergency Management Agency.
Maine received about $14 million in federal homeland security funds this year. Fitzgerald said 80 percent of this money went to municipal and county agencies, and the remainder was reserved for state projects.
Some of the money was also earmarked for exercise programs and training for teams with specialized responsibilities, such as hazardous material cleanups.
In Oxford County, the dispatch center in Paris will receive $87,000 to purchase software that will enhance computer systems, Parker said.
Fryeburg and SAD 17 will receive money to invest in generators to install in schools used as local shelters.
In total, SAD 17 received $318,856, which might be shared with SADs 39 and 44, although on Friday details about what projects would be funded were unclear. Originally, SAD 17 banded with the two other districts to apply for some shared equipment, while also requesting equipment, including the generator, for schools within its district.
Northern Oxford Regional Ambulance Service, also known as MedCare, will spend $72,000 to buy a vehicle to pull its new mass casualty incident trailer.
The county’s decontamination unit will receive about $33,500 to buy a truck to pull its trailer, Parker said.
Hebron Fire Department will have about $6,400 to purchase equipment to fill up firefighters’ air bottles.
The regional response team at New Page in Rumford will also be able to spend about $71,000 on a mobile cascade system, including a generator and compressor, which can fill up firefighters’ air bottles anywhere, according to Parker.
Finally, Parker said the Paris Fire Department received a grant for $11,900 for different items that will support Norway and Oxford as well.
Four applications were denied, Parker said, from Otisfield Fire Department, Bethel Police Department, Fryeburg Police Department and the Oxford County Sheriff’s Office.
The successful applications were tied to regional support, Parker said. “If you look at those four, they were tied to stand-alone fire departments or police departments.”
Lynette Miller of MEMA said Friday that the grants were evaluated by how well the local agency’s plan matched the state’s over-all security strategy, as well as whether regional partners were included.
Over 45 percent of the available grant funds were awarded to Maine’s largest metropolitan areas, Art Cleaves, MEMA director, wrote in a news release.
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