On September 10 Chief Berry of the Manchester Police Department received a letter from the Department of Justice informing him that Manchester would be receiving a $50,000 grant from the DOJ's COPS "Secure Our Schools" grant program. The receipt of this money is a direct result of the efforts by the Democratic Directors, including Dave Sheridan, Kevin Zingler and Jason Doucette, who attended the National League of Cities national conference in March. The grant will be used to enhance school security with state-of-the-art security technology at Nathan Hale School and Illing Middle School.
The March trip has also reaped additional returns for the Manchester community, including a $500,000 grant for the Regional Emergency Operations Center and $200,000 for the Spruce Street Youth Center. Perhaps even more impressive is that these results fly in the face of the Republicans who, at the time, decried the Democratic Directors attending the conference, claiming that the cost was exorbitant and a waste of taxpayer dollars. Based on the results, it appears that the indignation was misplaced and completely without merit.
