More than $3.3 million in federal funding coming to Lorain County

More than $3.3 million in federal funding announced Friday will directly affect projects in Lorain County. U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Cleveland, said the money came from a funding package recently signed by President Joe Biden. The Nord Center received $1.5 million to aid in the construction of the new Lorain County Crisis Receiving Center. The multimillion-dollar center, which is likely to be built on the grounds of the Nord Center on South Broadway in Lorain, will be a 24-hour, one-stop center for up to 32 patients experiencing mental health or addiction crises. The Mental Health, Addiction and Recovery Services Board of Lorain County has already committed nearly $10 million in building and services funding to the center. Lorain County commissioners committed an additional $4 million, while state funding and private donations could add up to another $3 million. Lorain County Community College's Training Recruitment Acceleration Innovation Network, or TRAIN Ohio advanced technology program, will receive $688,000. LCCC partners with local companies to help provide and train a workforce with "early, hands-on experience and on-the-job training in high-demand and high-skill industries," according to the college. Employees get paid opportunities with Northeast Ohio companies while earning a certificate or degree two days a week and working three days a week. The Lorain Police Department will receive $500,000 from the U.S. Justice Department's Community Oriented Policing Services office to upgrade its technology, and an additional $400,000 for a community policing initiative. Mobile technology will be installed in police cruisers, including modernized and upgraded in-car tablet computers, modems, GPS preemption sensors and officers will get body-worn cameras. The community policing initiative will be focused on staff, training and gang prevention services. "Lorain, already beset by violent drug gangs, gun violence and killings, is now facing worsened socioeconomic challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic," according to a summary of the project purpose provided by Brown's office. "In response, the Lorain Police Department is aiming to boost its community policing initiatives with additional personnel, training, and gang/drug market interdiction in its most challenged neighborhoods." The Small Business Community Navigator in Lorain will receive $250,000. The money will help small businesses and entrepreneurs "navigate, secure and leverage resources from the American Rescue Plan, federal programs, state programs, and other sources as the community emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic and economic crisis and seeks to rebuild the economy and its small businesses," according to Brown's office. Brown also helped secure $348 million for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, "which plays a critical role in restoring and reclaiming the Great Lakes and its tributaries," his office said. That includes fighting invasive species, pollution and toxic contamination, and algal blooms, while restoring water quality and ecosystems. Brown and his office worked with local entities across Ohio to request and secure all the Congressionally Directed Spending funding through the Senate Appropriations Committee. "My office and I regularly host and attend meetings with local leaders, because listening to the concerns facing communities across Ohio is the best way for me to do my job and serve Ohioans," Brown said. "We need to use every tool available to get resources to Ohio, and that's what we did with these local priorities. The best ideas don't come out of Washington — they come from Ohioans who know better than anyone what their communities need."