By Mike Kruzman / news@whmi.com

Livingston County’s Emergency Management Department is seeking a grant that will help support its planning team and local projects.

Emergency Management Coordinator Therese Cremonte was before the Courts, Public Safety, and Infrastructure and Development Committee, earlier this week. She was seeking their blessing for the authorization of the FY 2021 Homeland Security Grant. The grant is for a 3-year period dating back to last September, with monies needing to be spent by the end of May 2024.

The County is set to receive roughly $75,000 out of the $800,000 Region 1 pie, in which Ingham County acts as the fiduciary. Livingston County is the most populous emergency management program in the 10-program region, and will receive a proportional allocation. Cremonte said that roughly $47,000 of their funding will support their planner, with the remaining amount split up between local responders for the things they require.

Commissioner Brenda Plank asked if that money could go towards an Unmanned Aircraft System, or UAS, which might more commonly be known as a drone. Cremonte said that grant funding is going towards that, but not from this particular one. She pointed to the overlap of grant funding and said that the tactical UAS they are targeting will come from 2020 funds. Cremonte said they like to use the oldest pot of funding first, due to timelines.

Cremonte said this year’s grant funding could potentially go toward the IT department and upgrading cyber-security measures in public safety vehicles.

The request for grant authorization passed through the committee and will now go to the full Board of Commissioners.