Schools get Homeland Security funds for surveillance equipment

GUILFORD – School properties in Guilford, Dover-Foxcroft, Milo and Greenville will be a lot more secure in the near future, thanks to a Homeland Security grant.

School administrators under the leadership of SAD 4 Superintendent Paul Stearns had applied for Homeland Security funds in 2004 for surveillance equipment, but because of an administration change in the Piscataquis County Emergency Management Agency office, the award was overlooked, according to Tom Iverson Jr., Piscataquis County emergency management agency director.

“This is a county grant where all the superintendents got together and worked as a team,” Iverson said Thursday.

When Iverson took over the job last year and discovered the approximately $46,000 award notification, he checked on the status of the funds and learned they were in an account at the state level.

“I did not want to see that money go someplace else, and it would have,” Iverson said Thursday.

He has since received preliminary approval for the release of the funds that will be administered by his office and awarded to local schools.

Iverson said the funds requested by the schools were as follows: $12,525 for SAD 41; $12,112 for Foxcroft Academy; $10,633 for Greenville, and $10,393 for SAD 4.