By Kristin Rover
Sun staff

The New Richmond Police Department will be getting two new radios after the department received another grant this month.

The village was awarded Ohio Justice Assistant Grant funds, which will be used to purchase new radios for police officers.

New Richmond Administrator Dave Kennedy said the village received $6,931.44 from the grant and will provide a local match of $770.16 to purchase the radios.

Police Chief Randy Harvey said the department is in need of the radios because of changes in technology to the county communications system including participating in the Ohio Multi-Agency Radio Communications System.

“They are doing a lot of upgrades to the communications system,” Harvey said. “These models will have better reception and clarity.”

Harvey said he believes the upgraded technology and being a part of MARCS, which enables multiple agencies and counties to communicate, will be helpful for the village.

“Especially down on the river, we have poor transmitting and signal,” Harvey said. “This will help us have clearer communications.”

Harvey said old radios at the department are no longer being serviced by the manufacturer.

Harvey said the new radios are the Motorola 6,000 model and the old radios are the Motorola 3,000 model.

He said the grant will provide two new radios for the department.

“At about $4,200 a piece that is pretty expensive,” Harvey said. “Just receiving two is somewhat of a blessing.”

Harvey said they will have a couple years to replace all of the radios. He said they currently have seven at the department.

“With our budget restraints, we have been talking about how we are going to budget for those,” Harvey said about the radios. “It’s something I’ve been consulting with council about. We haven’t devised a plan at this point.”

Kennedy said it is the second grant the department has received in the past three months.

The first grant the department received was through the Ohio Office of Criminal Justice Services and enabled the department to purchase new crime scene equipment including a digital camera and finger printing kits.