HILLSBOROUGH, NJ – Congressman Leonard Lance (NJ-07) today announced that the Hillsborough Rescue Squad will receive a $73,800 federal security grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to purchase new safety equipment.
Lance made the announcement at a news conference at the Hillsborough Rescue Squad with New Jersey Assemblyman Pete Biondi, Hillsborough Township Deputy Mayor Gloria McCauley, community leaders and Hillsborough Rescue Squad officials.
Lance said the federal grant funds would help underwrite the cost for the Rescue Squad to purchase new rugged mobile tablet computers for all of the rescue squad’s vehicles. According to rescue squad officials, the computers will be installed in seven ambulances, three rescue trucks, three special operations vehicles, two command vehicles and five boats.
“Hillsborough rescue squad members work hard day and night to keep our community safe,” said Lance. “State of the art, modern communications equipment will help these brave men and women as they carry out their important jobs in public safety. When the updated system is fully implemented, rescue squad crews will be able to communicate with Hillsborough police dispatchers electronically and much of the needed information will transfer automatically to the right entities.”
Hillsborough Rescue Squad Chief David Gwin said that the new computers will allow the squad to transition to electronic patient care reporting software instead of paper-based reports.
“These important funds will help us make the transition to state of the art electronic patient care reporting,” said Gwin. “Electronic reporting increases efficiency and accuracy. Information storage and retrieval will now be computerized. For example, mass casualty response plans for township schools can be stored on the computers and instantly accessed by responding crews.”
Earlier this year, Lance held his annual workshop for Seventh Congressional District first responders and local town officials to learn about the availability of federal security funding and he regularly assists local officials in applying for the funds. For more information on Lance’s annual first responders workshop, please contact Brad Myhre at 908-788-6900.
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