The Tennessee Risk Management Trust awarded the Carter County Emergency Management Agency a small safety grant Thursday.

Tennessee Risk Management loss control consultant Jason Baggett presented a check of $1,700 to Carter County Mayor Leon Humphrey and Carter County EMA operations and training officer Billy Harrell inside the Carter County Mayor’s Office.

It is the first year that Tennessee Risk Management has given out the grant, and after receiving 43 applicants, the group awarded the grant to 11 of its members for a total of $64,500. The Carter County government and the Carter County Schools are the only two members in East Tennessee to receive the grant.

“Our board decided to put together a small application to award our members if they had some great safety ideas or had some things they needed safety-related.,” said Baggett. “We hope to do this again next year and every year on out and grow it more and more.”

The Carter County EMA will use the funds to purchase a new welding helmet and protective welding gear for the Carter County school bus garage, first aid kits for all of the vehicles at the highway department along with 50 safety cones to divert traffic. The monies will also be used to purchase wet floor caution signs for the courthouse. The caution signs will be in both Spanish and English. Harrell also said that the some of the funds will go to help the Carter County Landfill which suffered a fire earlier this year.