Ctiy Awarded Police Officer from "Obama Dollars"

I have spent a considerable amount of time this spring and summer chasing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Funds and that chase paid off Tuesday as the Department of Justice announced the City will be able to hire a police officer, paid for by "stimulus" funds.

West Tawakoni was one of 31 Texas law enforcement agencies awarded funds to replace police officers who were laid off by budget cuts. In a locally controversial move last summer, our City Council eliminated two city staff position, one of them a police officer.

Here is a story from today's Greenville Herald Banner...

West Tawakoni to receive federal funds

By DANIEL WALKER
Herald-Banner Staff

WEST TAWAKONI — The City of West Tawakoni has been awarded $117,000 under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

West Tawakoni was the only Hunt County entity to be awarded funding by the program. “We’re real excited. This is going to make a big difference in the community,” said West Tawakoni city administrator Cloy Richards. “We’ve been chasing those Obama stimulus grant dollars all summer and we finally got one.”

The Obama administration on Tuesday announced $1 billion in grants nationwide to help keep police officers on the beat during the economic downturn. The aid announced by Vice President Joe Biden and Attorney General Eric Holder was highly sought after. For every $1 to be delivered, another $7 in requests were unfunded under the grant program, Community Oriented Policing Services, commonly called COPS.

“We figured we only had a 12 and a half percent chance of being funded. We are tickled to death that the City of West Tawakoni was able to obtain a slice of the stimulus pie,” Richards added.

West Tawakoni, which currently has four police officers, had been forced to eliminate a police officer position during the 2007-08 fiscal year due to budget shortfalls Richards said and the money will put that officer back on the streets.

“We had been running a deficit and had no way to fund an officer,” Richards explained. “It upset quite a few members of the community,but we had no choice. This will get us back to nearly full staff.”

Richards said the city can hire the fifth police officer immediately and he expects the city to act quickly. The grant will fund the officer position — including pay, healthcare, retirement and benefits — for three years with the city responsible for the fourth year.

“As excited as I am about the grant, I’m a little overwhelmed by the grant owner’s manual I just downloaded, it’s 81 pages long,” Richards added.

According to the Department of Justice, West Tawakoni’s application was ranked 18th of the 385 Texas entities that applied for funding. Thirty-one entities in Texas were approved and 196 new officers will be hired in the state.