Vermont will receive $6.7 million in federal grants from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to support local community emergency preparedness initiatives.
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., announced the federal grants for prevention and preparedness programs to respond to acts of terrorism and other catastrophic events, according to a news release.
The grants were distributed under a formula Leahy advocated for “to protect smaller states like Vermont,” the announcement from the senator’s office said.
“Vermonters understand that it is crucial to be prepared,” Leahy said in the news release. “We saw how devastating Tropical Storm Irene was for our rural communities, and we remember how the Vermont Air National Guard were among the first to respond in the tragic aftermath of 9/11.”
Vermont will receive grant awards from two Department of Homeland Security programs:
• $3,734,500 from the State Homeland Security Grant Program to support the implementation of strategies to address the identified planning, organization, equipment, training and exercise needs to help state and local first responder agencies prevent, protect against, respond to and recover from acts of terrorism and other disasters.
• $3,032,644 for the Emergency Management performance Grant Program to assist Vermont and local governments in the state in emergency preparedness for disasters and hazards.
The state will award grants for local emergency needs.
Erica Bornemann, chief of the Division of Emergency Management and Homeland Security for the state, and Jessica Stolz, homeland security section chief, said the dollars are about equivalent to last year’s grant allocation for the state.
“This is annual money that we receive from the Department of Homeland Security and also FEMA,” Bornemann said. “These are two of the primary federal grants that fund the Division of Emergency Management and Homeland Security.”
Bornemann said the division is primarily federally funded, and the grants “fund the recovery and mitigation section, and a large portion of the Homeland Security grant program goes directly to local agencies for emergency response systems.”
Stolz said local and state stakeholders work to “determine how the grant funds will be distributed,” and receive requests for proposals from communities statewide each grant cycle, then award sub grants to those local entities, from fire departments to law enforcement agencies and more.
About $300,000 of the money is directed to equipment for border patrol in Vermont, Stolz said.
Grants help with communications systems for emergency responders, such as a statewide lifeline system for first responders funded in 2013, said Stolz, and to improve coverage in spotty areas for emergencies.
One of this year’s grants will go to the Underhill-Jericho Fire Department to upgrade “a big hole (in service) that creates challenges for them,” in responding to emergencies, Stolz said. Also in this round of grant awards will be funding for mobile data terminals for police officers to have in their cars, she said.
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