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Two agencies in Collier County recently received grants from the Department of Homeland Security that officials say will help them standardize equipment with other agencies and strengthen local tax dollars.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s Division of Law Enforcement distributed night vision goggles, specialized life jackets, waterproof radios, thermal imaging devices and high-powered search lights to the Collier County Sheriff’s Office to bolster its regional waterborne response team.

The Conservation Commission was responsible for distributing nearly $1 million of equipment to marine units statewide. The funding came from the Department of Homeland Security.

There are 44 waterborne response teams across Florida whose mission is to provide security at pre-planned events and to respond to emergencies on Florida’s 8,400 miles of tidal coastline, Conservation Commission Maj. Calvin Adams said.

“The reason the teams are developed is we want them all equipped the same and trained the same,” Adams said. “It’s mirrored after a lot of the stuff that the Coast Guard has established.”

The new equipment simply enhances already existing capabilities within the Collier Sheriff’s Office, sheriff’s Lt. Dave Johnson said.

Although the Sheriff’s Office already had similar equipment, the grant from the Department of Homeland Security will help keep the current equipment from degrading during regional response missions, Johnson said.

It also allows the various teams around Florida to work together better.

“It puts it on a statewide footing as opposed to a regional footing, and it provides a standardizing of equipment,” Johnson said.

The Isles of Capri Fire Control and Rescue District also recently announced that it had purchased 14 new self-contained breathing apparatus units using $64,771 it received in March from the Department of Homeland Security’s 2006 Assistance to Firefighters Program.

The grant more than doubled the district’s annual budget for purchasing new equipment, Collier Emergency Management Director Dan Summers said.

“We’ve been very aggressive with that grant program using those grants for firefighter safety improvements and enhancements,” he said. “We’ve had good equipment, but what this allowed us to do is we’re working really hard across the county with independent and dependent fire districts to standardize equipment.”

The new air packs are lighter and have more capacity than the district’s existing packs, Summers said.

Getting them from the Department of Homeland Security grant allows the district to use local money on other priorities.

“It helps us strengthen the local dollar,” Summers said. “Are (the grants) important to us? Absolutely they are important to us. Would our doors close if we didn’t have them? No, our doors wouldn’t close.”