Aroostook County receives $202,340 in 2006 Homeland Security funding

CARIBOU – Aroostook County will be shrouded in an extra layer of protection thanks to a substantial award from the Department of Homeland Security.

Both the Aroostook County Emergency Management Agency and the Madawaska Police Department received a total of more than $202,340 in 2006 Homeland Security funding.

“I think that we fared pretty well overall as a county,” Vern Ouellette, director of the Aroostook County Emergency Management Agency, said Tuesday. “There were a lot of requests and there was not a lot of money to go around, so we are grateful for what we received.”

The state received nearly $2.5 million in 2006 Homeland Security grants for counties and municipalities across the state.

The Aroostook County EMA received more than $142,000 from two separate grants. The agency will use $101,921 of that to purchase portable shelter generators, and $40,260 will be used to acquire interoperable communications equipment.

The four generators will be housed at various locations across Aroostook County so that they can be deployed quickly to towns throughout the region.

“The generators will be on wheels so that they can be moved anywhere in an emergency and be used to run emergency shelters,” Ouellette explained. “They also could be deployed to the southern part of the state if the need arose.”

Ouellette said that the interoperable communications equipment will be installed in 24 emergency response vehicles throughout Aroostook to further enhance communication between emergency responders and dispatchers.

At this point, emergency vehicles contain a radio in the car, and responders such as police officers and firefighters use portable radios while outside their cars to communicate with dispatch. Ouellette said Tuesday that the range of the portable radios is limited, however, and not as powerful as the radios in the vehicle. When officers key their portable unit with the new communications system, the message will be transmitted through the car radio to dispatch so that it is more powerful.

The Madawaska Police Department also received a $60,158 grant to install the communications equipment.

Ouellette said Tuesday that the funding would serve to better equip emergency first responders and further protect County residents.

“We have to work together to ensure that we are adequately protected, and thanks to the funding we will have some additional tools to get the job done,” he said.

Maine has distributed more than $70 million to counties and municipalities since 1999, including the 2006 funding.