Florida Department of Management Services Secretary Jonathan Satter announced more than $650,000 in grant awards to 18 rural Florida counties through the Rural County Grant Program to support the installation and maintenance of enhanced 911 systems. Since January 2020, DMS has awarded more than $6.7 million in funds to Florida counties to modernize Florida’s public safety communications systems.
“Governor DeSantis is committed to ensuring our rural communities, especially those located in disaster-impacted areas, continue to have access to critical public safety funding through the Rural County Grant Program,” said DMS Secretary Jonathan Satter. “We will continue to leverage all available resources to assist our communities in building resilient and reliable emergency communications systems.”
The Rural County Grant Program is a biannual grant program that utilizes allocated E911 fee revenue funds for equipment and maintenance. Based on E911 Board allocations, three percent of the wireless, prepaid wireless, and non-wireless revenues are used to provide extra assistance to rural counties for providing 911 or E911 service.
The most recent counties awarded E911 grants through the Rural County Grant Program include:
- Baker County: nearly $70,000 for system maintenance.
- Bradford County: $45,000 for system maintenance.
- Dixie County: nearly $40,000 for system maintenance.
- Gadsden County: nearly $34,000 for system maintenance.
- Gilchrist County: nearly $30,000 for system maintenance.
- Hamilton County: nearly $64,000 for system maintenance.
- Hardee County: nearly $44,000 for system maintenance.
- Hendry County: nearly $75,000 for system maintenance.
- Jackson County: $6,300 for generator maintenance.
- Lafayette County: nearly $42,000 for system maintenance.
- Liberty County: nearly $20,000 for system maintenance.
- Madison County: nearly $42,000 for system maintenance.
- Okeechobee County: nearly $30,000 for system maintenance.
- Putnum County: nearly $64,000 for system and generator maintenance.
- Suwannee County: nearly $2,600 for recorder maintenance.
- Taylor County: nearly $11,000 for system and generator maintenance.
- Union County: nearly $9,400 for map maintenance.
- Wakulla County: nearly $37,000 for system maintenance.
All Florida counties are eligible to apply for grants through the E911 State Grant Program. The next deadline for counties to apply is Friday, Nov, 20, 2020.
Counties with populations of less than 75,000 are also eligible to apply for grants through the Rural County Grant Program. The deadline for eligible counties to apply for the Rural County Grant Program’s next funding cycle is Thursday, April 1, 2021.
Apply, or learn more about E911 grants and past award recipients here.
About DMS
The Department of Management Services (DMS) is the primary business and workforce services provider to Florida Government. DMS is proud to serve those who serve Florida, working every day to create efficiencies, value, and sustainable cost savings for Florida taxpayers. DMS staff take pride in providing excellent customer service and supporting agency priorities through innovation and technology. For more information, visit www.dms.myflorida.com.
