Benton County Receives $10,000 Grant

The State of Tennessee Department of Military and Emergency Management recently notified Benton County Executive Jimmy Thornton and Emergency Management Director Bob Keast that Benton County had been chosen as recipient of a $10,000.00 grant. The grant awarded is "earmarked" for use in purchasing new and upgrading existing Emergency and Fire Response Team equipment. All facets of the county's Emergency Response Teams will benefit from these awarded dollars.

"Grants are free monies that have no strings attached and no cost to the citizens of Benton County. You don't have to pay them back but you have to purchase new equipment. All you have to do is know how to ask for it, and spend it on what the grant specifies. In this case, its all for the new and updated equipment," said Bob Keast who has attended numerous workshops and training to learn the grant writing procedure over the past three years. After meeting with Dwayne Presson with the Rescue Squad and Chief Trip Palen with the Volunteer Fire Departments to decide what they deemed the most worthy expenditure of the proposed money, the grant writing process began.

"Our county desperately needs the new equipment, and local funding has just not been available," Palen and Presson both agreed. The original paperwork for the grant was submitted over 18 months ago and is only now arriving through proper channels for Benton County to be able to purchase the fire and rescue equipment. "During the application, proposed purchases must be itemized and approved for the requested dollar amount. No part of these grants can be used for any salaries, or anything not pre-approved," said Keast.

This first grant was approved to purchase SCBA and other breathing apparatuses, masks, gloves, boots, and other personal protection equipment, radios and communications devices, and more. Many other applications for other grants valued at $20,000, $8,400, $40,000 and $10,000 totaling just short of $100,000 have been submitted by Keast. Some of the submissions been approved and are only awaiting disbursement.

Benton County Emergency Response Teams have pulled together and extended a great combined effort to obtain required training to make Benton a "qualified" county for receiving these 100% grant monies. The majority of our counties' emergency response teams are completely volunteer positions and many, many hours have been dedicated by this group to reach this level of accreditation.

Keast has held the position of Benton County Emergency Management Agency Director for thirty years and this is the first time Benton County has received these types of grants. The volunteer, non-paid position requires many hours of extensive training courses through the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency including hazardous materials, incident command, terrorism, communications, weapons and mass destruction, vehicle extrication, and more. "I'm proud of the way our Benton Countians have pulled together to make this all happen. So many hours of training have been required, and we have had participants from all nine fire departments representing all six of the county's civil districts," he commented. Keast has also been a member of the Benton County Rescue Squad for thirty-one years, and has held a variety of positions throughout his years.

For the past ten months, Benton County has joined forces with all agencies and established a LEPC (Local Emergency Planning Committee). The group is developing a comprehensive plan of emergency operations in the event that any man-made or natural disaster might occur. The new plan is on the platform for approval by the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency and should be in effect some time in the early spring. With the current threat overtone of terrorism, an addendum has been added to incorporate a WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction) plan. The LEPC's plan, once approved, is to be the prototype "model" that all of the other 94 Tennessee counties will follow.

One of the upcoming grant awards will assist in funding the enactment of the LEPC's plan once approved. The grant will assist with funding an exercise simulating a hazardous material spill that could included weapons and mass destruction factors. Exercises such as this are critical when determining real-time problems and solutions. The monies will also assist in implementing the plan, printing and distribution among the Emergency Response Team members. This multi-jurisdictional training is scheduled for the summer of 2003. Benton County Sheriff Cecil Wells, Decatur County Sheriff Ronal Kenner, Benton County EMA Director Bob Keast and Decatur County EMA Director Kevin Cagle will bring the proposed incident to the LEPC by next month.

"It is really exciting to be able to have the latest and greatest equipment here in Benton County without any expense whatsoever…other than time and effort from all the wonderful volunteers from the Red Cross, schools, hospitals, Rescue Squad, county and city governments, private industry, health departments, businesses, all the fire departments, electric system, gas and water departments, healthcare professionals, sheriff and police departments, Church groups and all the others that have contributed their time. It's a good feeling to see us all come together for the cause," said Keast. The LEPC is chaired with John Smoot, Gary Farmer and Mar Steinbuck and meets monthly. The public is welcome.