Marshal happy about COPS

eff Neimark, Hanna Marshal, got happy holiday news from the U.S. Department of Justice, (DOJ). The Hanna Marshals Office was approved by the DOJ for a Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) award of one officer position. This comes from the 2017 COPS hiring program where a large part of a new deputy’s salary and benefits are covered by the DOJ.

The estimated funds to be awarded to the Hanna Marshals Office over the three year award time frame is $125,000. The local funds match is $120,590. This award will allow reimbursement of wages and benefits for a full time deputy to be employed by the Hanna Marshal’s Office.

On July 17, 2017, the Hanna town council approved a resolution supporting the application to the DOJ for the COPS Grant and it has taken about four months for the grant to come full circle, Neimark said.

“With this award by the Department of Justice, it will greatly help the Hanna Marshal’s Office in increasing our services to our community,” Neimark said. “The increased visitors, workers, population and increased calls for service to assist other agencies will lead to additional calls being handled by this office in the next upcoming three years and we will also be able to enhance our current programs such as our community policing, house watch programs and related patrol activities.”

Neimark said the highlights from this year’s hiring COPS program were that it funds the number of officer positions equal to five percent of the actual sworn force strength of a municipality, up to a maximum of 15 officers for agencies with a service population of less than 1,000,000; or, up to a maximum of 25 officers for agencies with a service population of over 1,000,000. The grant provides 75 percent of the approved entry level salaries and fringe benefits of each newly hired or rehired full-time officer, up to $125,000 per officer position, over the three-year grant period.

“This funding is rather substantial to help cities, states and towns throughout the United States in getting more law enforcement officers,” Neimark said. “There will be a substantial amount of funding saved for the Town of Hanna due to this COPS grant.”

Neimark is happy about the timing of the grant as areas around Hanna are slated to have workers come to work on various wind projects.

“There are energy projects in the works such as the Boswell Springs Project which will definitely impact our town as well as other projects in the near future,” Neimark said. “There will be a demand for local services fire and emergency response, law enforcement and associated equipment need for increased community support services.”

Neimark said he had help with getting the grant written.

“The Hanna Marshals Office Clerk Sharon Kahl has played a significant role in preparing and writing grants and also the help of Pam Paulson, the Town Treasurer.” Neimark said. “It is a real team effort when we work on a grant because grants are very time consuming, but are certainly worth our effort.”