Rockland Wins Grants For Emergency Preparedness

ROCKLAND COUNTY, NY — New York officials have awarded $7.4 million in grants to bomb squads, hazardous materials teams, explosive detection canine teams and technical rescue and urban search and rescue teams across the state, and several are coming to Rockland County.

The funds will also help protect and secure critical infrastructure and enhance local governments' cyber security capabilities.

Rockland has one of the state's 12 FBI-accredited bomb squads, which will receive a $104,545 grant. The program helps equip and train the bomb squads to locate and prevent potential emergencies caused by improvised explosive devices or IEDs.

Rockland also received $15,000 to develop and enhance their explosive detection canine capabilities.

One regional grant announced Tuesday will benefit Rockland, including $142,000 for the Orange Rockland, Sullivan and Ulster counties joint hazmat team.

The State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services manages the targeted grant programs.

"First responders need high quality resources to do their jobs to the best of their abilities and this funding will ensure they can acquire them," Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in the announcement about the grants. "We owe infinite thanks to these teams and anticipate these grants streamlining the work they do to serve our communities."