By Abbey Kwiatkowski
Marquette County, MI – A grant request by the Marquette County Sheriff's Office to provide more officers for patrol has been denied. Recently, 6 west Marquette County townships and the sheriff's office joined together to apply for the COPS grant application with the hopes of receiving funds to provide more officers to patrol the west end. The grants would have provided funds for the officers for 3 years. Although the sheriff's office did receive some bad news, some good came when 2 of the 6 townships, Richmond and Republic, were approved to purchase 2 police patrol vehicles through rural developments grants that came from the US Department of Agriculture. The grants totaled $20,000 each. Marquette County Undersheriff Jack Schneider, says now that the COPS grant has been denied, it will be up to the townships on whether to accept the rural development grants.