Homeland Security has award Lincoln County’s Emergency Management Agency (EMA) a $17,756 grant for training to improve county preparedness and response capabilities.
County Emergency Management Director Tim Pellerin made the announcement before the regular meeting Tuesday morning of the county commissioners who had authorized the grant application.
Pellerin said deputy director Kim Kaiser and Wally Morris wrote the grant for the county EMA, and communications deputy director Kathy Blagdon wrote a grant for $87,000 for 9-1-1 communications repeaters received previously.
The county EMA can use $9000 of the grant for NIMS (national incident management system) training, which is designed to standardize emergency procedures for all emergency services local and county, including law enforcement, fire, and hospitals.
Pellerin asked the board to help him choose three towns in Lincoln County for an audit of NIMS compliancy.
“Only a few towns have a few pieces of pie missing,” he said. “My goal is to get every one of my towns compliant.”
The funds will also be used for title panel vests and mass casualty response equipment vests.
In making the award, the state MEMA stated in a letter to Pellerin it received $10 million worth of requests, with less than $2.3 million available to award in grants under the Homeland Security Grant program.
Pellerin also spoke about the recovery of $330,000 for disaster relief from the Dec. 12 ice storm previously reported in the press which federal EMA personnel helped the county. Counting the recovery funds, the county EMA and communications center together have received a total $434,000 in grants in the first 30 days of the year.
Shellfish contracts
The board approved contracts with South Bristol and Bristol for Sheriff’s Dept. enforcement of shellfish ordinances in those towns, but postponed a decision on a contract with Bremen because mutual agreement has not been reached, Sheriff Todd Brackett reported.
County Administrator John O’Connell spoke with the county’s Risk Pool representative and felt because of the liability issue associated with the task, the same option Bristol and South Bristol approved should be acceptable.
Commissioner Sheridan Bond said, “I feel we have to go with our advisors.”
Other business
Sheriff Todd Brackett got board approval to extend the hours per week for Volunteers of America inmate program from 32 to 49 hours to do more diversion of county inmates.
“We have a need to do more diversion,” he said. “This is going to give us more hours of service to do that.”
The board agreed to maintenance of patrol and other department motor vehicles up for bid.
Commissioners also approved the purchase of five more tasers for the department this year as part of a three-year purchase plan at a cost of $5425 including a training update, which Brackett said is a budgeted item.
“The intention is to have 15 tasers so each member of the patrol division will have one,” he said.
Concerning corrections issues, Brackett said he would be willing to give the board a workshop on legislation for the state Board of Corrections so the working group will have a better understanding of how budgeting works.
Recycling center supervisor Mike Thompson reported the center in Wiscasset received $14,630 in revenue during January.
The board reported Richard and Marsha Gray of Westport Island have submitted an abatement appeal for property on Young’s Point in Wiscasset and scheduled the appeal hearing for Mon., March 17.
