Carbon County is continuing its attempts to help cover the cost for portable radios for some of the region’s emergency services.

On Thursday, the board of commissioners approved submitting a grant application to the Commonwealth Financing Authority for a Local Share Account grant in the amount of $949,966.01.

The grant would be used to construct one new radio subsite with related equipment, purchase 59 Motorola APX6000 portable radios and three Motorola APX8000 all-band portable radios and related site infrastructure as Carbon moves from analog to digital radio frequencies for better communication between counties during emergencies.

Commissioner Wayne Nothstein said that the radios would be for police in the county as one phase of the project.

He added that a lot of the municipalities have already also been applying for their own funds; however, the county is competing with itself because it is all the same grant funding.

In May, the county received word that it will receive $465,000 from the LSA grant to purchase some of the radios for law enforcement agencies. That award was half of what the county had applied for.

Each radio costs around $10,000 plus programming and accessories.

Nothstein said that the project will take place over multiple years, depending on funding availability, but is necessary for the safety of first responders.