Commission receives and applies for more grants
by Jazz Clark
The Morgan County Commission approved a number of grants at the meeting on August 2, though funding was much lower than expected.
From Purdue Pharma, the Morgan County Sheriff’s Department asked for $103,594 in order to install new cameras in all squad cars to aid the fight against prescription drug abuse.
They were granted $20,000, which was only enough for nine cameras, and only if they trade in the old ones.
Also from Purdue, $40,000 was received for an Incident Based Reporting grant to allow mobile laptops and connection to criminal record databases on the move as well as training and other uses.
Since $163,353 was applied for, Paw Paw Police Chief Tim Harthun will have to make due without various services which automatically fill in incident reports with criminal data and mobile laptops in every vehicle.
“We can scale up or down our services depending on how much funding we can acquire,” said Harthun. “It’s something we can build upon instead of wiping out and starting over later.”
A Focus Plus grant is being used to fund environmental cleanup at the future site of a recreational facility off Route 522.
A sum of $12,000 was delegated to the commission and recreational task force for that task.
“These monies can be used for engineers, consultants, specialists of that nature to draw up the plans of whatever concept the group agrees upon,” said Commissioner Brad Close.
The Morgan County Partnership has been running a program to enforce the underage drinking law for three years, and they applied for two grants.
They applied for $23,000, and through two different sources of $1,325 and $8,650 were awarded around half of their goal.
Nonetheless, the partnership can go ahead with the program. The commission signed a contract resolution and approved the memorandum of understanding for the Enforcing Underage Drinking Laws Grant Programs.
Also through the Morgan County Partnership is Juvenile Justice Teen Court in the amount of $20,000.
A Prevention Resources Officer (PRO) grant in the amount of $20,000 is to be used for salary. The remaining $33,970 will be picked up by Board of Education. An additional $5,000 in gas costs will be funded through the Sheriff’s Office.
Other news
The contract with AIO Recovery services was signed after all the legal documentation finally came through.AIO is a company which will go through bills and find where government officials are paying too much for services, reducing their monthly bills and taking a fraction of the profits.
There was no opposition to this contract signing.
After sitting off the fire board for one year, Mark Miller was re-appointed for a three-year term.
An anonymous $2,000 check was put into Animal Control funds. Part of this amount will be used by Animal Control Officer Jason Pearce for room and board while taking level two animal training.
