Seal of the Governor
For Immediate Release: August 31, 2018
Contacts: Office of the Governor: Ofirah Yheskel, Ofirah.Yheskel@governor.virginia.gov | Virginia Department of Emergency Management: Jeff Caldwell, jeff.caldwell@vdem.virginia.gov

Governor Northam Announces Allocation of $7 Million in Homeland Security Grant Awards

RICHMOND—Governor Ralph Northam announced the culmination of a stakeholder-driven process to allocate over $7 million in federal grant awards to enhance emergency preparedness and security throughout the Commonwealth. The funds will be administered by the Virginia Department of Emergency Management (VDEM) to support a wide array of emergency preparedness and security operations, equipment replacement, training, planning and exercise programs by local governments.

“Virginia’s emergency management personnel and first responders work tirelessly to protect their fellow Virginians and ensure public safety,” said Governor Northam. “These grants are funding a diverse group of projects in communities across Virginia, further enhancing our resiliency and improving the Commonwealth’s ability to prepare for and respond to all hazards.”

“Virginia has elected to use an inclusive and detailed grant review process, incorporating stakeholder expertise to understand the security needs across the Commonwealth to allow us to use our limited grant funds to support the most critical needs facing our first responders,” said Secretary of Public Safety and Homeland Security Brian Moran.

VDEM received 110 grant requests totaling nearly $8 million to compete for the competitive portion of these federal funds. Forty-eight projects were awarded a total of $2.2 million from competitive State Homeland Security Program funds. The Virginia Modeling and Simulation Center at Old Dominion University manages the peer-review process conducted by Virginia’s public safety stakeholders for competitive grants, and scores proposals based upon benefit-cost ratios. Awards have funded a diverse group of programs including community outreach and preparedness programs, interoperability efforts, sheltering programs, equipment enhancement and exercises.

As requested by public safety stakeholders, an additional $2.5 million was allocated in non-competitive grants from this year’s State Homeland Security Program to fund 30 projects sustaining 12 hazardous materials teams, seven technical rescue teams, four incident management teams, four Virginia radio communications caches and the Virginia Fusion Center.

Furthermore, $1.5 million was awarded to the Hampton Roads Urban Area Security Initiative (HR UASI) to address the unique needs of this high-threat, high-density urban area. An additional $821,179 was awarded to the Nonprofit Security Grant Program to allow hardening and other physical security enhancements to nonprofit organizations located within the HR UASI and recognized to be at an increased risk of terrorist attack.

“Federal emergency management and homeland security grants to Virginia have been cut by nearly 70 percent since 2008, and emergency managers throughout Virginia have worked to become more strategic about allocating our limited funding to meet the greatest needs,” said VDEM’s State Coordinator for Emergency Management Jeff Stern. “Nearly 200 local leaders from emergency management, law enforcement, fire and rescue, and EMS representing communities throughout Virginia participated in evaluating potential projects to allocate this limited funding to do the most good.”

Competitive Grant Awards

Accomack County

All-Weather Response Vehicle

$42,600

City of  Buena Vista

Regional Heavy-Duty Emergency Response Vehicle

$69,500

Central Shenandoah Planning District Commission

Staunton-Augusta-Waynesboro Hazardous Materials Emergency Response Plan

$24,000

City of Chesapeake

Foam Team Equipment Sustainment

$59,943

City of  Chesapeake

Flammable Liquid Firefighting Training for Foam Team

$71,698

Chesterfield County

Regional Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) Training

$10,000

Chesterfield County

Radiation Equipment for the Chesterfield Fire and EMS Hazardous Incident Team

$12,000

Chesterfield County

Central Virginia Regional Flammable Liquids Training

$75,000

Chesterfield County

Whole Community Preparedness Outreach and Response Training

$15,000

Commonwealth Regional Council

Volunteer, Donation Management, and Coordination Plan

$19,475

Fairfax County

Foam Team Training and Equipment

$50,000

Fairfax County

Northern Virginia UAS Program Enhancement

$75,011

City of Fredericksburg

Command Vehicle Technology and Functionality Upgrades

$84,000

Hampton Roads Metropolitan Medical Response System

Mass casualty incident and mass care capability sustainment

$70,000

Hampton Roads Metropolitan Medical Response System

Point of Care Ultrasound – replacement

$73,500

City of Hampton

Regional Underwater Remotely Operated Vehicle

$64,000

City of Hampton

Regional CERT project – Hampton and Poquoson

$37,327

Henrico County

Henrico County Continuity of Operations Planning (COOP) Development and Exercise Project

$25,000

Henrico County

Commodity Flow Study and Emergency Operations Plan Appendix Update Project

$40,000

Henrico County

Courthouse Full Scale Exercise

$60,000

Henrico County

Central Virginia Emergency Management Alliance Regional Recovery Framework Project

$50,000

City of Hopewell

Regional Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Equipment

$34,000

City of Hopewell

Central Virginia Regional Emergency Management Planning

$74,275

City of Hopewell

Crater Regional Hazmat Team Equipment

$71,000

City of Hopewell

Crater Regional Technical Rescue Team Equipment

$55,000

James City County

Regional Preparedness Campaign 

$15,550

James City County

Regional Point of Distribution Plan

$20,010

James City County

Regional CERT Project

$35,000

Middle Peninsula Planning District Commission

Re-Entry and Access Authorization Plans for Middle Peninsula and Northern Neck Localities

$44,050

Middle Peninsula Planning District Commission

Regional Emergency Planner

$49,500

New Kent County

New Kent County CERT Program

$29,447

City of Newport News

Community Preparedness – Regional eLearning and CERT

$26,500

City of Norton

Interoperable VHF repeater

$23,099

Page County

Regional CERT – Page County and Warren County

$18,550

City of Richmond

City of Richmond CERT Program

$12,000

City of Richmond

City of Richmond Preparedness Campaign

$65,000

City of Richmond

Central Virginia Sheltering & Mass Care Enhancement Supplies and Equipment

$61,488

City of Richmond

Central Virginia Whole Community Preparedness Outreach and Education

$80,000

City of Richmond

Central Virginia Mass Care Enhancement Training and Exercise

$42,000

Russell County

Regional CERT Program

$45,776

Shenandoah County

Sheriff's Office Court Security Cameras

$34,500

Spotsylvania County

Sheriff's Office Prevention and Response Patrol Boat

$82,892

Tazewell County

Regional Interoperability Strengthening

$55,890

Westmoreland County

County Wide Incident Command and Control Project

$13,500

City of Winchester

City of Winchester UAS equipment

$29,879

Wise County

Southwest Regional Mass Notification System

$88,331

Wise County

Regional Response Vehicle Ballistic Protection Upgrades

$21,000

Wise County

Equipment Sustainment of Wise County Sheriff's Office Tactical Team

$36,000

 

Non-Competitive Grant Awards

Accomack County

State Hazardous Materials Team

$59,000

City of Bristol

State Hazardous Materials Team

$52,000

City of Bristol

Technical Rescue Team

$50,000

City of Chesapeake

Incident Management Team

$95,000

City of Chesapeake

Radio Cache Team

$82,000

Chesterfield County

Technical Rescue Team

$86,000

Chesterfield County

Incident Management Team

$95,000

City of Danville

State Hazardous Materials Team

$56,347

Fairfax County

Technical Rescue Team

$50,000

Fairfax County

Incident Management Team

$95,000

Fairfax County

Radio Cache Team

$71,000

Franklin County

Incident Management Team

$47,000

City of Fredericksburg

State Hazardous Materials Team

$34,211

City of Harrisonburg

Technical Rescue Team

$89,000

City of Harrisonburg

Radio Cache Team

$105,000

City of Harrisonburg

State Hazardous Materials Team

$50,455

City of Harrisonburg

Unmanned Aircraft System Team

$15,000

Henrico County

State Hazardous Materials Team

$62,000

Lunenburg County

Radio Cache Team

$70,000

City of Lynchburg

Technical Rescue Team

$87,019

Montgomery County

Radio Cache Team

$95,000

City of Newport News

State Hazardous Materials Team

$42,000

City of Portsmouth

State Hazardous Materials Team

$73,000

City of Roanoke

Technical Rescue Team

$84,000

City of Roanoke

State Hazardous Materials Team

$58,300

City of Virginia Beach

Technical Rescue Team

$50,000

Virginia State Police

Fusion Center

$600,000

City of Winchester

State Hazardous Materials Team

$95,000

City of Wise County

State Hazardous Materials Team

$52,000

York County

Unmanned Aircraft System Team

$15,000

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