Putnam County committee approves BJA grant application for behavioral‑health response; officials give detailed radio project update

PUTNAM COUNTY, N.Y. — At its March 11 protective services meeting, the Putnam County Legislature approved an application to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) for a law enforcement behavioral‑health response grant and heard a detailed update on the county’s multi‑year radio modernization project.

The committee voted to authorize submission of the BJA grant application. Presenters said the county’s current federal grant for a mental‑health crisis responder expires Sept. 30, 2025, and the proposed BJA award would be a three‑year grant running from Oct. 1, 2025, to Oct. 1, 2028 if awarded. Committee discussion said the grant is a matched award with a 20% county match in the first two years and a 60% match in year three; award amounts are discretionary, with announcements up to $550,000, and presenters said the county will not seek the maximum award.

Committee members were told the county will file the application this month and that, if the existing federal funding is not extended, the county would seek budget relief through its regular budget process.

The meeting also included a substantial update on the Putnam County Radio Project, a multi‑year initiative to move county public‑safety communications to a P25 trunked system. Officials reported the system entered operational testing in February and that voice and data testing covered nearly 4,000 grid points; agencies currently using the system include the sheriff’s office, county department of public works, transit, Village of Cold Spring PD and Village of Brewster PD. Presenters said remaining towers to be completed include Piano Mountain, Hutton Valley Airport Park and Nelsonville (Phillips‑town) tower; the Nelsonville site remains subject to a deed restriction negotiated with OSI and the town of Phillipstown.

Officials told the committee the system performed well in field tests — including locations previously considered marginal for coverage — but acknowledged a short, fixable lag tied to patching between analog and trunked channels. The rollout plan calls for a staged fire department deployment: a division of departments will be programmed and tested for roughly two weeks (division 4), and if that pilot is successful the county plans a faster county‑wide programming schedule, possibly moving rollout from May into April.

Several volunteer fire chiefs and other first responders attended and raised concerns about communications continuity, the cost and sourcing of radios, code‑plug programming (the configuration files for radios), mutual‑aid talk groups, and building‑level signal boosters (BDAs). Officials said the county purchased an initial allotment of radios for chiefs and some apparatus using grant funds and that departments remain responsible for procuring radios for all riding positions; presenters reiterated that equipment must be P25‑compliant and cautioned that third‑party or non‑Motorola radios may not support future features.

On a canine update, Sheriff McConville reported the sheriff’s K‑9 complement remains at the same authorized number and that a retired dog is now living with its handler per the department’s policy; the sheriff said the new bloodhound in training will not require additional funds beyond existing allocations.

Public commenters — including Gabriel Rivera, a volunteer fire chief, and Anthony Hoffman, chief of the Cornwall Police Department — urged speedy action on interoperability and MOUs with neighboring counties. Multiple legislators asked the county to provide departments a simple MOU template for cross‑jurisdictional talk groups and to produce an inventory of radios issued to departments.

Officials said they will continue testing, provide department‑level inventories and MOU templates, pursue final tower approvals (including a stamped drawing from American Tower for Piano Mountain), and keep the legislature informed as grant and budget decisions proceed.

What happened next: The committee approved the BJA grant application authorization and accepted the radio project update; further actions include final tower approvals, completion of division‑level fire department testing, and follow‑up on MOUs, radio inventories and building signal studies.