San Juan County seeks federal funding for firefighting, law enforcement equipment
A pair of new trucks for San Juan County Fire & Rescue and a piece of crime-scene equipment for the San Juan County Sheriff’s Office are on the County Commission’s wish list for federal funding for fiscal year 2025.
During a Tuesday, March 12 meeting in Aztec, commissioners approved a recommendation by County Manager Mike Stark and the county staff that the county’s official requests for congressional directed spending — a program through members of Congress can request federal funds for specific projects in their states, formerly known as earmarks — be aimed a new ladder truck and a new fire engine for the fire department, as well as a new crime scene reconstruction scanner for the Sheriff’s Office.
The ladder truck is the most expensive item of the three, carrying a price tag of $2.15 million, Stark said. He told commissioners that the new vehicle would serve as a replacement for a 27-year-old ladder truck at the Lee Acres fire station that is nearing the end of its life span.
The new fire engine would cost $736,000 and would be stationed at the Blanco fire station, he said.
The crime scene reconstruction scanner would cost $130,000, Stark said, and would be used to assist Sheriff’s Office personnel in investigations.
Sheriff Shane Ferrari said the scanner is essentially a very technologically advanced camera that sits atop a tripod, capturing a highly detailed and accurate, three-dimensional scan of an entire scene, be it a car crash or a crime scene.
Ferrari said the scanner captures the precise location of evidence such as bullet casings, weapons or even bodies while providing distances between those items. Investigators currently have to chart each of those items separately and measure the distance between them manually, he said, which he described as a very time-consuming process.
“It’s a very important piece of equipment, especially to prosecution,” Ferrari said. “It also saves us a lot of time on scene doing measurements.”
Having the use of such a scanner also would prevent the chance of one of his investigators forgetting to chart the location of a certain item that might turn up to be useful later in the investigation, he said.
Ferrari said such scanners are very commonly used by large public safety agencies. He said the Farmington Police Department has had one for several years.
Commissioners unanimously approved the three requests. Stark said the county has offered to provide a 25% match for the federal funds for each of the items.
The county made three requests for congressionally directed spending for fiscal year 2024, and all three requests were secured by members of the state’s congressional delegation — Sen. Martin Heinrich, Sen. Ben Ray Luján and Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández, all Democrats.
That list included $605,000 for a self-contained breathing apparatus for San Juan County Fire & Rescue, $90,000 for a virtual reality use-of-force simulator for the Sheriff’s Office and $963,000 for a mobile command center that will be used by the Sheriff’s Office, the fire department and the San Juan County Office of Emergency Management.
Mike Easterling can be reached at 505-564-4610 or measterling@daily-times.com.Support local journalism with a digital subscription: http://bit.ly/2I6TU0e.
This article originally appeared on Farmington Daily Times: Federal funds sought for San Juan County equipment needs
