Piedmont Police Chief Steven Tidwell said the grant money, distributed by the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs (ADECA), would build upon equipment the department purchased from a previous ADECA grant. The department used funds from that first ADECA grant to install laptop computers in all of the city's police cruisers last year.
According to Tidwell, the fingerprint scanners would reduce errors that can occur with the older method of ink and paper fingerprinting. Tidwell stated that the department currently processes a large number of fingerprints for area employers and for residents applying for housing within the Piedmont Housing Authority, and by using the older method it can be difficult to get a usable print. Tidwell stated the digital scanners will reduce the amount of re-processing.
The council also passed a resolution discontinuing the use of 800 mhz radios for all city departments. Tidwell stated that most city departments now use the newer VHF and UHF radios and the older 800 mhz radios are often in need of repair and the repairs are costly.
The Piedmont Post Office will continue to accept bulk mail. Piedmont Postmaster Dorris P. Webb announced the change in policy in writing, stating that "input from local retailers as well as the Mayor's Office was instrumental in allowing the BMEU office in Birmingham to realize the negative impact the move would have had on local mailers."
The new policy negates a previous announcement from the Postal Service that would have shifted bulk mail acceptance from the Piedmont Post Office to the Jacksonville branch that would have gone into affect on Feb. 19, 2010.
In other business, the council paid bills in total of $148,805.36.
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