Sheriff's office receives grants

The Hill County Sheriff’s Office has just been approved to receive two grants, one of which is specifically aimed at helping deputies provide border patrol support without additional taxpayer cost.

Hill County Sheriff Don Brostrom said Thursday that about a week ago the commissioners approved an Operation Stonegarden grant, $68,130, and Bulletproof Vest grant, $3,800.

Brostrom has had great success in finding grants over the years. Since 1999, when he was was undersheriff, the Hill County Sheriff’s Office has received 48 grants, he said. The total amount of those grants comes to $3.479 million.

The purpose of the Operation Stonegarden grant is to enhance cooperation and coordination among local, tribal, territorial, state and federal law enforcement agencies in a joint mission to secure the country’s borders.

Montana as a whole will receive $877,630 in Stonegarden grants this year, a press release from the office of U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., says.

The Stonegarden grant assures that there is no cost to Hill County taxpayers won't have to cover expenses when deputies assist border patrol agents, Brostrom said.

The sheriff’s office has received the grant in multiple years.

One example of the grant’s use is transportation.

Brostrom said that before the Stonegarden grants became available, deputies were using Hill County vehicles. Now the Sheriff’s Office has three 4x4 pickup trucks that are specifically there to be used when deputies assist border patrol.

The grant not only pays for the vehicles, but the gas in it and the time the deputies work to assist border patrol.

The Bulletproof Vest Grant is a federal grant through the Department of Justice that picks up half the cost of a bulletproof vest whenever the department buys one. Brostrom said a vest normally costs about $1,800. The grant pays half of that with the sheriff’s office paying the other half.