DAPHNE, Ala.— On June 20, the council voted 7-0 to authorize the purchase of emergency-response equipment through a grant from the Mississippi Canyon 252 Incident. The purchase is pending approval from Gov. Robert Bentley.

“These funds are based upon a couple of contingencies, the main of which is that the governor’s office approve the project. These are the BP funds that the city got in compensation for the oil spill. This is to upgrade the radio communications city wide,” City Councilman August Palumbo said.

The resolution approved by the council authorized a reallocation of the funds the city received from the Gulf Coast oil spill. The funds were originally intended to purchase boom, which the city did not need.

“This came about, we were reminded at the Public Safety Committee (meeting) by (police) Capt. (Danny) Bell, that this had been on a work session several months ago and somehow or another it got lost in the process…” Palumbo said.

The funds will be used to purchase radio equipment, which the city will be required to purchase in the future. The purchase will include hand-held radios with GPS, hand-held radios without GPS, mobile radios with GPS, mobile radios without GPS and other miscellaneous items.

The new radio system will bring the police department, fire department, parks department and public works department onto the new system.

The total cost for all equipment will be $316,413.