News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Van Buren County Commissioners approved several grants for the Sheriff’s Department at its special called meeting Tuesday night.
The grants included the state Health Department’s ELC confinement grant, a training equipment grant, and a technology grant. Sheriff Michael Brock said the confinement grant is the largest at more than $479,000 and a zero percent match. He said the funding must be used for anything that prevents the spread of infectious diseases.
“Certain things that are required in the patrol car,” Brock said. “Maybe like a split-cage confinement in the back for instance. That’s one of the big things. So that you would have an air vent if you had two people and you would have separate coming to both of those folks.”
Brock said the Tennessee Corrections Institute’s training equipment grant comes in at some $9,900. He said they hope to use it on new desktop computers, taser cartridges for trainees and more.
Brock said the final grant was proposed by the department’s inmate phone call company. He said Combined Public Communications approached the department with an offer for a $25,000 grant spread over four years.
Brock said the department can spend it on whatever it deems will serve as a benefit and falls into CPC’s specifications. He said he has begun looking at quotes for radios.
“This is another $0 matching grant and the way this works is we would get the quotes for items per our purchasing policy and then we would send that invoice to CPC under the guidelines of this tech grant and then they would pay that,” Brock said. “(…) This could be used on items greatly needed in the jail and one of the things we’re looking at getting are radios for our corrections officers, which they have never had before.”
The County Commission approved each grant unanimously.
