Levy Court approves police grants

By Leann Schenke
Posted 5/13/21

DOVER — Kent County Levy Court commissioners decided Tuesday to provide $300,000 in grants to area law enforcement agencies.

Of the $300,000, a third will be given to the Delaware State …

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Levy Court approves police grants

Posted

DOVER — Kent County Levy Court commissioners decided Tuesday to provide $300,000 in grants to area law enforcement agencies.

Of the $300,000, a third will be given to the Delaware State Police.

The remaining $200,000 will be distributed to municipal police departments on a basis determined by the number of times each department provided emergency response assistance to the DSP during the 2020 calendar year.

While he voted in favor, Commissioner Eric Buckson questioned how the grant amounts per department would be determined.

Levy Court President Terry Pepper said reports from the times each police department assisted DSP were pulled from Delaware Information and Analysis Center — a method similar to the last time the grants were issued in 2014.

Commissioner Pepper said the key to getting these funds is “keeping good records, keeping reports.”

“Looking at the numbers, I can see which police department assisted and which did not,” Commissioner Pepper said.

Commissioner Buckson said it would be concerning if the departments that benefit most from the grants are the ones that simply turned in records.

“That’s not the intent. The intent is the assist, to reward work,” Commissioner Buckson said.

Commissioner Pepper defined “assist” as “pulling up to the scene and assisting the state police — whether it be a domestic or traffic accident or anything like that.”

“I personally don’t know any other way that you could do it,” Commissioner Pepper said of determining how to divide up the money.

Commissioner Buckson suggested the grant money could be divided up next time by department size, as well as the amount of assists each year.

“I agree. There’s probably another good way to do it, but this is the way that we’ve traditionally done it,” Commissioner Pepper said. “The way we do it next time, maybe we can look at it differently. The main thing that we wanted to capture is not so much supporting an individual police department and what they do in their own jurisdiction, but we’re trying to support them coming out to the unincorporated areas to assist the Delaware State Police, who is our primary police agency in Kent County.”

Also during the meeting, the commissioners unanimously approved a request from Linda Parkowski, economic development director for Kent Economic Partnership, for reimbursement on land appraisal services not to exceed $5,000 each. The funds will come from the Kent County Strategic Development Fund.

There are six parcels in question for appraisal. Ms. Parkowski said they are located near the civil air terminal at Dover Air Force Base, which is getting “very close,” she said, to a joint use agreement that could help attract new businesses to the area.

For the agreement to happen, Ms. Parkowski said there needs to be more contiguous land available and “under control.”

“This is really the early stage,” Ms. Parkowski said. “What would happen next, hopefully, would be that we would go out and get options.”

There will be a public hearing at 7 p.m. Tuesday, May 25 for an ordinance to amend the fiscal year 2021 annual operating budget to appropriate funds for a new emergency medical services facility and real property assessment project contract.

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