By Charles Romans
Carter County Times
The City of Grayson held a special, called meeting on Thursday, March 27, with only one item on the agenda. That item was the approval of funding for ammunition for the Grayson Police Department, which would be used for training and regular use.
Grayson Police Chief Tony Cantrell made the council aware of a grant through the Kentucky Office of Homeland Security, Law Enforcement Protection Program, that allows a city, county, charter counties, unified local government, urban-county government, and other agencies to reimburse their police departments for eligible expenses such as body armor vests, duty weapons/firearms, ammunition, tasers, taser software units, and taser cartridges.
Grayson Mayor Troy Combs explained to council that the reason for calling the special meeting was that there was a deadline on the grant application, and it required a resolution to move forward. “When it came across his desk a few days ago, Chief Cantrell thought it would be a good idea to apply for this,” Combs told the council.
“It is basically the same type of grant we used earlier for the rifles,” Cantrell explained to council. “And there are several things you can apply for with this grant. But what we’re looking at is the ammunition.”
“We can get up to 6,000 rounds,” he added.
Cantrell said that ammunition was difficult to keep up, especially given that officers are expected to qualify up to three times every year. This is further compounded by officers needing to qualify on multiple weapons that each require different ammunition. Securing this grant would allow the police department to secure all the different types of ammunition required for officers to meet those qualifications.
Cantrell said that, again like the recent grant the department secured for rifles, this grant would require the ammunition to be paid for in advance, with the department then reimbursed through the grant. The reimbursement time on the rifles, Cantrell said, was approximately three weeks.
A resolution by the city council was a requirement to apply for the grant, Chief Cantrell told the council, but it did not obligate the city to pay any amount if the grant was not approved. The resolution served basically as a letter of intent, so to speak, stating that if approved then the funds would be made available to purchase the ammunition in question with the understanding that the money spent would be reimbursed by the LEPP Grant.
The police department submitted three bids for the ammunition alongside the grant, with the most economical being around $9,000, Cantrell told the council.
He also explained that the grant approval process takes time. Cantrell said that it took a year on the previous rifle grant. He said their odds of approval were good, but also made the council aware that the first priority of the grant was providing or replacing body armor vests, with ammunition and firearms being the grantor’s secondary priority. Council voted to approve a resolution supporting the ammunition purchase, dependent upon approval for the reimbursement grant.
Chief Cantrell said the grant would not only help the Grayson Police Department officers to maintain firearms qualification, but also give the city a better surplus of ammunition against future need.
Contact the writer at charles@cartercountytimes.com
