MOULTRIE — Colquitt County could receive more grant money than expected, from U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop’s office, to offset the cost of updating the emergency services’ radio system.

At the last county commission meeting, Sheriff Rod Howell told the commissioners that his deputies could not communicate effectively with the radio system that is currently in place.

He asked the county commission to sign a letter of intent that would commit that Colquitt County wanted to receive grant funds from Bishop’s office so that the radio system could be updated to the P25 digital system. The commissioners voted unanimously to sign it.

The P25 digital radio system allows interoperable communications between law enforcement and emergency responders from various agencies in different counties. At the last meeting, Howell said that he had met with Motorola that day and was given an approximate cost of $4.5 million to update the system.

The grant funds received from Bishop’s office would offset that cost by $986,000, Howell had said at the time.

Recently, Howell updated The Observer that there had been a change in the amount to be rewarded from the congressman’s office as another applicant for the available funds had dropped out.

“We are excited that the amount we will receive from the grant has increased from $990,000 to $1.2 million! This greatly helps offset the cost to tax payers,” Howell said.

The executive director of the Southwest Georgia Regional Commission, Suzanne Angell said in an email to The Observer that Colquitt County, along with Miller and Baker counties have committed to the project and she also stated that Colquitt County will be awarded approximately $1.2 million.

“We received a letter of commitment from Colquitt County and the other counties this past week. We are finalizing paperwork to submit to USDA to move the grant application forward,” she also stated. “We do expect to receive and distribute the funding this year.”

The grant, itself, is a product of federal funding that Bishop was able to secure last year as part of the Fiscal Year 2023 funding bill. The Southwest Georgia Regional Commission received the money, which totaled $3,941,986, with the goal of using the funds to help the counties under its purview purchase the P25 radio system equipment.

In a press release last year, Bishop said, “I worked hard to secure these funds and look forward to the Southwest Georgia Regional Commission’s work with our local authorities to get them the communications equipment they need to better coordinate in response to crises like crime and natural disasters.”

The Southwest Georgia Regional Commission was established to assist local governments on a regional basis and to establish coordinated and comprehensive planning in the state.

“This regional effort is of utmost importance in ensuring our region has the most advanced communications system, to not only provide critical first response services in an individual county, but to have the capability to communicate and coordinate services across county lines,” stated Angell last year in the same release. “Interoperable communication is vital to initial response, public health, community safety, national security and economic stability.”