La Crosse Police Department receives $38,000 in federal grant; area receives over $2.5 million
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The La Crosse Police Department has received a grant from the federal government to help offset spending related to COVID-19 equipment and supplies.
The $38,850 grant was awarded by the Department of Justice through its COVID Assistance Supplemental funding grant, and will specifically help pay for equipment and supplies that police will need to purchase as it continues its work through the pandemic.
This funding is separate from the CARES Act funding that Gov. Tony Evers is distributing to municipalities, which could also help the police and other departments offset unbudgeted spending.
The city of La Crosse will receive $848,595 and La Crosse County will receive $1,942,516 in Evers’ “Routes to Recovery” grant, which was announced May 27. Awards were based on population.
Both the DOJ grant and the state funding can be used to pay back such things as hand sanitizer, plexi-glass for office spaces, facemasks and UV lights that are used to clean squad cars — expenditures officials never “would have dreamt about having two months ago.”
The police department’s grant can be used for any COVID-19 related spending between Jan 1 of this year through the end of 2022.
The additional funding comes in the wake of the city’s plan to cut $4.42 million of its budget due to revenue loss, including $100,000 cut to the city’s police department.
But officials said these state and federal grants cannot help offset revenue loss.
Officials did not immediately have a breakdown of how these dollars would be used.
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