Cullman EMA receives grants

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October 31, 2008

Anonymous The Cullman Times Fri Oct 31, 2008, 09:58 AM CDT

By Patrick McCreless

staff writer

The Cullman Emergency Management Agency will soon have more than $40,000 in funding for community programs and equipment through Department of Homeland Security grants.

The grants were accepted during a Thursday meeting of the Cullman County Commission. The meeting was held in recess from its regular time on Tuesday due to the absence of County Commissioner Doug Williams.

Cullman EMA Director Phyllis Little told the commission that homeland security selected her agency to receive a $20,000 and a $21,100 grant.

“And those are both 100 percent grants,” Little said. “We do not need to pay any matching funds.”

Little said the lesser grant would be used to fund several local programs including the EMA’s citizen emergency response team program, the neighborhood watch program for the city of Cullman, the Cullman County Sheriff Office’s citizen academy and a neighborhood watch program for the city of Hanceville. Each program will receive approximately $1,000.

Little said the members of each program would use the money mainly for books, signs and other promotional items.

“The coordinators will purchase what they need provide us with the invoices and we’ll be reimbursed by homeland security,” Little said.

Little said the other grant will be used to purchase equipment for the Cullman city and county emergency dive teams.

“We’ll be buying the county eight wetsuits, a compressor for filling air bottles and an equipment trailer,” she said. “For the city we’ll buy four dive suits and an equipment trailer.”

Little said the Cullman EMA has received many homeland security grants over the years. Over the last five years, she estimated the EMA received in excess of $500,000 in grant funds. The money was used to purchase various pieces of equipment including firefighter equipment and security cameras for the Cullman County Courthouse.

Also during the meeting, Commissioner Williams read a proclamation in honor of Commission Chairman Wiley Kitchens, who will step down from his position in November. Kitchens lost his bid for re-election to James Graves during the Republican primary.

“I wish to express our appreciation ... for your years of service,” Williams told Kitchens.

Kitchens said he wished there were some things he could have accomplished but overall, he was proud of what he did while in office.

“I leave it very satisfied,” Kitchens said. “We’ve done what we think was right to the county.”

In other business the commission:

‰ awarded a bid for an SUV for the Cullman County EMA.

‰ awarded a bid for a compact track loader for the OHV Park.

‰ awarded a bid for high density polyethylene wood for the OHV Park.

‰ signed an agreement with the Alabama Department of Transportation to cover the cost of resurfacing 1.85 miles of County Road 548.

‰ established a 25 mph speed limit for County Road 848.

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