EPHRATA-- Grant County Fire District 13 has been awarded a regional grant from the US Department of Homeland Security.  Sixteen Grant County Fire agencies will share $592,398 in federal grant funding from the Assistance To Firefighters Grant Program to complete a countywide radio communication upgrade.

The purpose of the upgrade is to improve communications between Grant County agencies, as well as regional and statewide agencies.

Most of the existing radios used by Grant County Fire agencies are ten to twenty years old and do not meet current industry standards and necessary capabilities.  Funding will be used to replace outdated, substandard equipment with new radio equipment to improve response capabilities.

More specifically 229 mobile radios for fire apparatus, 235 handheld portable radios, 11 base station radios for fire stations and 483 tone and voice pagers for firefighters will be purchased.  The total project cost is $740,850.  $592,398 will be supplied by the grant and the participating agencies will be required to pay the $148,452 match (20% of the total).

Grant County Fire District 13 will act as the host agency and manage the grant.  "This is a tremendous step in our efforts to improve interagency communications and to improve interoperability," said District 13 Chief Shane Heston.  "It would not have been possible unless all of the participating agencies came to the table to work together as a team," noted Heston.  "We also received outstanding support from both state and federal law makers," said Heston.