News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
The Overton County Sheriff’s Department will apply for a $40,000 grant that can be used to help upgrade some of the county’s existing buildings.
County Executive Ben Danner said that even though a new county building is ready to open, some of the older facilities need security upgrades.
“That will help us tremendously,” Danner said. “We don’t have the extra money to update. This courthouse here was built in 1869, and we’re still using it for the court meetings, and we still will after we get the new building built, but the security is really not up-to-date. That will help keep it secure and safe for the people coming in here.”
Danner said the grant is funded with emergency COVID-19 money. $10,000 each will go toward the sheriff’s department and the courts, with $20,000 set aside for the jail. The funds can be used for technology and equipment.
“Some of the other buildings don’t have camera systems,” Danner said. “And they don’t have the scanners we need. This is money we don’t have to pay back. There’s no match at all to it, so it’s really good for to update a lot of the systems we have.”
The Overton County Commission voted to allow the Sheriff’s Department to apply for the grant Monday night. In addition to upgraded security, some of the funds will be used to purchase extra PPE for county workers.
“We’ll get masks, sanitizer, gloves face shields, and stuff like that,” Danner said. “That all costs a lot. It’s not as high as when this first started, but we couldn’t get it to start with. Nobody could, but that’s going to safeguard us.”
Danner said the county’s ambulance service previously received an $80,000 grant. Also, he said Overton County will apply for a share of $115 million dollars the state is releasing to help communities with COVID response.
