By Rusty Marks
Charleston Gazette

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Kanawha County officials approved more than half a million dollars in funding Tuesday for police departments and emergency response agencies all over the county.

The projects, paid for by Public Safety Grant funds, include more than $253,000 for the Kanawha County Sheriff's Office and local police departments, and about $259,000 in equipment for fire departments and emergency responders.

The largest expense was $100,000 set aside for renovations to the former American Electric Power building next to the county courthouse. The money will be used to upgrade part of the building for the sheriff's department.

Other law enforcement expenses include new radio equipment and computer software for the South Charleston Police Department; 12 radios for the Yeager Airport police force; Taser guns for police in Glasgow, Cedar Grove and Pratt; body armor for the Chesapeake Police Department; in-car video equipment and security cameras for the city of Clendenin and car-mounted cameras and traffic radar for the Nitro Police Department.

Nitro also received $52,000 in funding to replace an air compressor used to fill firefighters' oxygen bottles because the town's current compressor no longer works. Other emergency equipment approved Tuesday includes 10 mobile radios for the Marmet and Chesapeake volunteer fire departments, rescue tools for the Pratt Volunteer Fire Department, fire hoses for the Handley Volunteer Fire Department and new digital radios for the Charleston Fire Department.

County Commissioners Kent Carper, Dave Hardy and Hoppy Shores approved the expenditures at a regular meeting of the county commission on Tuesday.

Also Tuesday, commissioners approved $20,000 to Yeager Airport to build a USO-type reception center for military personnel and their families who may be traveling through the airport. The commission also agreed to give $40,000 toward a $150,000 water line extension to Coal River Energy's new mining operation along Corridor G near the Kanawha-Lincoln County line.

Although the water line is coming from Lincoln County, commissioners agreed that Coal River Energy is mostly in Kanawha County and that helping the company would help Kanawha County citizens, create about 300 new jobs and generate extra coal severance tax revenue.

Copyright 2008 Charleston Newspapers