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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