Berkeley County approves multiple public-safety and grant awards, including $1.8 million SCDVA award

Berkeley County Council approved a series of grant awards and funding authorizations intended to bolster public-safety services and training.

During committee reports, Councilman Marshall West presented recommendations from the Committee on Justice and Public Safety that the council approved. Those recommendations included authority for the county supervisor to sign a $44,443 grant agreement with the South Carolina attorney general's office to retain a law enforcement victim advocate, and multiple South Carolina Department of Public Safety awards: $106,877 (to support one deputy’s salary, fringe benefits, mileage and checkpoint supplies), $142,291 (to support a DUI prosecutor’s salary and related costs), and $155,740 (to support traffic enforcement, overtime and checkpoint supplies). The council also approved additional funding of $77,961.44 for a requested solicitor victim advocate position.

Separately, LaChelle Brown reported the county had been preapproved for a South Carolina Department of Veterans' Affairs (SCDVA) Military Enhancement Fund grant of $1,807,154 to acquire two firefighting-capable boats and a heavy-duty tow vehicle; the council authorized acceptance and signature with no matching funds required. The council also approved $60,000 for pediatric training equipment for mass-casualty incident preparedness.

All grant motions were approved by voice vote. The council did not identify local matching requirements for most listed awards and no contested roll-call votes were recorded in the public transcript.

Next steps: staff are authorized to execute grant documents and the county supervisor is to sign award contracts where required.