County seeks, finds federal grants

By Glynis Hart
[email protected]
NEWPORT — The Sullivan County Board of Commissioners paved the way for the House of Corrections to receive a $33,630 federal grant from the Department of Justice at its Aug. 5 meeting, as well as moving a number of other initiatives forward.

Sheriff John Simonds announced two grants have been received for a drug task force: $60,000 will allow the department to add another position.

“As you are aware, we put out a couple of requests for grants for the drone project,” said Simonds. “We’d like permission to accept those funds.” The grants total $11,000. The drone would be used in a variety of law enforcement actions, including search and rescue, and could be shared with other first responders.

Simonds also announced the department’s initiative to purchase IMC software, which will allow the department to manage records in a more efficient manner and also share records with other agencies.

Lionel Chute, director of the Conservation District, said they are still promoting cover crop mixes and multi-species mixes. “We’re evaluating that and it’s part of a statewide intitiative,” he said.

The Conservation District is also partnering with the Upper Valley Land Trust, which got a federal grant devoted to encouraging farmers to protect their lands for agriculture so they don’t get developed. “We’re part of the outreach on that,” said Chute. “So that everybody knows there’s an opportunity for farmers to protect their land and basically be paid for the conservation value by the Upper Valley Land Trust.”

The county did a “mini-timber-harvest” along County Farm Road, Chute reported. “Asplundh did a fine job. It was a little tricky for them bringing the trees down whole so we could use them as saw logs — instead of what they usually do of cutting them into three-foot chunks. I went out and bucked the logs with Todd, our field tech. We ended up with 45 logs. Asplundh took them for free to Pine Tree Saw Mill. We ended up with about $890, so it was a nice recovery of resources that would otherwise have gone up as firewood or something like that.

“The forest management plan is coming along; everyone’s out in the field collecting data. We have a student intern from Colby Sawyer, she’s out evaluating invasive species, what we have and how bad is it. The really bad ones like Japanese knotweed, we really don’t want it. We’ve got to do something about it and we will,” said Chute. Chute said there’s a population of Japanese knotweed spreading rapidly that endangers county fields.

“The other thing I’m focusing on is the county’s cidery. Last year we had a day, if you remember. This year we want to go a little further. Folks can come out and make their own cider, if they have their own apples. I have to work with Primex to make sure that’s all covered on the liability side, but that’s going to happen,” said Chute.

Commissioner Jeff Barrett mentioned an ad he heard for cover crop grants by the State of Vermont.

“New Hampshire is also very much promoting multi-species cover crops and no-till cover cropping,” said Chute. “They’re giving out free seed, so we can do that as well.”

In the Facilities report, Mary Bourque asked for the commissioners’ approval for her and County Manager Derek Ferland to move forward with replacing a heat exchange unit in the nursing home. The cost could run to $17,000. “That line item runs $65,000 every year for general repairs to the nursing home,” said Bourque. “So this could run it out pretty quick… there’s money there now, but depending on what we need to do through the course of the year we could run out.”

Bourque and Ferland will look into smart ways to pay for the heat exchanger. The commissioners authorized them to fund the purchase. They were also looking into the best price for installation, and will be presenting an estimate for labor.

Bourque said condensation had been a consistent problem with the boiler. “It’s been a constant struggle, so I think eliminating this source of fresh water should help that.”