Local emergency management officials are back from Montgomery with good news. They've received an annual grant from the Alabama Department of Homeland Security

Alabama is broken down into regions, and the ten counties in region two, which includes many Wiregrass counties, just received a big chunk of change.

Four hundred thirty thousand, seven hundred, and fourteen dollars to be exact. This is what ten counties in southern Alabama will soon receive to better protect their citizens.

Steve Carlisle of the Houston County EMA said, “All of the money has to be spent, whenever its spent is to be utilized for regional assets, in other words Houston county can’t just use or Dale county can’t just use it for Dale county"

The majority of this grant will go towards law enforcement, and we're not just talking about cop cars and weapons.

Carlisle said, "As an example, one of the counties needed a prime mover, needed a vehicle to pull a mobile morgue that can be utilized throughout the counties and throughout the state of"

The money will for a wide variety of items including new bomb squad equipment, and a trained bomb sniffing dog.

"One is for dive rescue boats, bomb squad equipment for law enforcement, a UHF/VHF type radio that also acts as a repeater that is manned into a helicopter, that extends our coverage range" said Carlisle.

Local law enforcement hope to get a piece of the pie as well.
Thomas Davis of the Dothan Police Department said, "For instant communication, we could use it there, as far as helping us to communicate with each other or receiving calls so that we can have our response time cut down."

And while each county has different projects they would like to see grant money put towards, the main goal is to keep residents safe.

"As long as the assets fall under the criteria for homeland security and can be used as a regional asset that’s the key to it." said Carlisle.

When the grant was set up, 25 percent was designated for law enforcement, and 25 percent for planning and preparedness.

The remaining 50 percent goes to various branches like local e-m-a offices and emergency medical branches.

Part of the grant will go towards radio equipment for a helicopter in Dale County.