Sheriff’s receives $35K grant

 
By Stuart Hedstrom
Staff Writer

DOVER-FOXCROFT — For years, dispatchers with the Piscataquis County Sheriff’s Department have been working with an outdated and homemade console system. Now thanks to the efforts of Dispatch Sgt. Gary Grant, the department has been awarded a $35,000 grant from the Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation to update the communications area.

 Observer photo/Stuart Hedstrom

KING FOUNDATION GRANT FOR SHERIFF’S DISPATCH CENTER — The Piscataquis County Sheriff’s Department was recently awarded $35,000 from the Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation to replace an outdated, homemade dispatch console system in the Piscataquis County Jail in Dover-Foxcroft. Dispatch Sgt. Gary Grant, center, applied for the grant, and he is pictured in the dispatch area with Sheriff John Goggin, left, and Telecommunications Supervisor Dave Roberts.

Sheriff John Goggin said the grant is “all to do with setting up different stations for dispatchers and telecommunications”, during an Aug. 18 meeting of the Piscataquis County Commissioners at the Brownville Town Office. Goggin said Grant applied for funding from the King Foundation “and yesterday we were approved for that.”

“It has to do with updating the communications room and giving each dispatcher his own desk to work in,” Goggin said, saying he cannot credit Grant enough for making the effort on his own to apply for the monies.

Telecommunications Supervisor Dave Roberts said Grant first approached him about submitting an application to the foundation in 2013 — which was not successful — but said undeterred, Grant applied again.

“It never really has been set up as a dispatch area,” Roberts said, with equipment placed on counter tops and perpendicular tables carefully positioned to not move if accidently hit.

“It will be two cubicles inside,” he said. “The dispatcher has to move in a lot of directions to take care of stuff,” and once updated the dispatch center will have an efficient design for those on duty.

“It will be given a more professional layout,” Grant said.

“What we are trying to do is increase the quality of the working conditions for people in the jail and this does that,” Interim County Manager Tom Lizotte said. He thanked the Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation, saying the program has likely contributed at least $500,000 to Piscataquis County projects.

“I am glad to see he saw the value in this project,” Lizotte said.