Driving enforcement grants run course

The Madison Township Police Department’s successful use of more than $22,000 in state grant money to curtail fatal traffic crashes in its jurisdiction means it’s ineligible to apply again this year.

The Madison Township trustees, last September, accepted a total of $22,026.39 — $13,226.63 by way of an Impaired Driving Enforcement Program (IDEP) grant and a Selective Traffic Enforcement Program (STEP) grant in the amount of $8,799.76.

This year, at its Sept. 12 meeting, the trustees officially accepted $2,035.24 from the STEP grant and $509.36 from IDEP funds, two separate resolutions show.

They’re the second-tolast reimbursements the township will receive from the two programs, both of which are administered through the Ohio Department of Public Safety’s Ohio Traffic Safety Office, Madison Township Police Chief Matthew Byers said in a Sept. 14 phone interview.

“We originally got the grant about a year ago,” he said. “And we just finished working the enforcement.”

He said the money helped cover extra hours, gasoline and other expenses related to increased traffic enforcement operations.

“The problem is, we’re short on manpower and we don’t have the officers to do traffic enforcement all the time. They’re on the road, responding to calls,” he said. “So this was for overtime to work that extra enforcement.” One factor that made the department eligible for the IDEP and STEP grants was the high number of fatal traffic crashes that happened in Madison Township in 2015, a total of six, which both Byers and Madison Township Trustee Kenneth R. Gauntner, Jr. confirmed was the highest in Lake County that year.

“We had a lot of fatal crashes last year,” Byers said in an October interview after the township scored the related grant money. “So we’re really looking to try to reduce those numbers by increasing traffic enforcement activity.”

And reduce them, they did, Byers said Sept. 14.

“We were eligible because of the number of fatal crashes we’d had,” he said. “Now, we’re not eligible to re-apply because the operations were so successful. And we’re very happy with how well the program worked.”

He said it didn’t cost the department or the township’s taxpayers a dime.

Through the grants, eligible departments are reimbursed for the extra manpower after specific, grantrelated operations are completed.

The grants spell out to what occasions the departments may apply the additional manpower: Thanksgiving weekend, prom, Click-it or Ticket mobilizations and homecoming weekends, according to the public safety department’s web site.

Byers said there have been no changes in the level of services the police department provides, aside from the increased attention to these specific trafficcrash issues the grants allowed. He added that nothing will change in terms of the services the department provides, day-to-day, for its residents.

He said the department will likely look into re-applying for similar grant money as soon as it’s eligible, probably in about a year.

“The program was very beneficial,” he said. “I’m very appreciative of the grants we received. However, I’m pleased we’re not eligible to reapply for it next year because we didn’t have any fatal crashes and that means the program achieved its goals. It helped reduce alcohol-related crashes and fatal crashes.”