Schenectady County legislature reports a slate of grant acceptances, equipment purchases and staffing changes to the floor

Schenectady County legislators on March 3 reported a package of routine resolutions to the full legislature after brief committee consideration, including acceptance of several state grants for housing support and public safety, capital budget amendments for Department of Public Works equipment, and contracts for crash-scene and body‑camera data services.

The most substantial awards included a $250,480 grant from the New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTDA) for a shelter-arrears eviction forestallment program and two grants from the New York State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services (DHSES): a competitive $609,599 award to maintain the county radio system and a $175,533 noncompetitive award for public-safety dispatch personnel costs. DSS Commissioner Brandy Hillard Bowden told the Health, Housing and Human Services committee the OTDA funds will be run by SCAP and “is to prevent evictions, people from being evicted in the city of Schenectady.”

The Legislature’s public-safety committee also moved several items supporting emergency response. Kevin Spahn, director of the county’s Unified Communications 9‑1‑1 Center, described the DHSES radio grant as covering maintenance of the radio system. The committee additionally accepted a $10,000 grant from the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services for search-and-rescue equipment and moved a 10‑year agreement option with Axon Enterprises for criminal discovery services related to body-worn camera data; the Axon item was described as a cloud-based solution for the district attorney’s office to obtain footage for court proceedings.

Other committee actions included a three‑year agreement with Faro Technologies to provide software and equipment used by the…