Lunenburg County’s Radio Cache team received a grant for $70,000 administered by the Virginia Department of Emergency Management (VDEM) to strengthen first responders’ communication through radio.

An announcement by the Office of the Governor Aug. 31 detailed the more than $7 million distributed to emergency response organizations throughout Virginia through its Homeland Security Grant Awards, of which Lunenburg County was one.

Victoria Fire & Rescue Chief and Victoria Town Manager Rodney Newton said Lunenburg has been involved with the commonwealth of Virginia radio cache program for nearly 10 years. “The Lunenburg Communications Cache has been operational since June 2010,” Newton said. “We are one of five teams around the Commonwealth that are designed to support emergency communications.”

The other teams are located in Hampton Roads (City of Chesapeake / City of Hampton), Fairfax County, Harrisonburg / Rockingham County and Montgomery County.

Radio cache consists of a series of portable radio or base stations that can be distributed to first responders in the event of a disaster.

“Virginia Communications Cache falls under the Special Operation Teams of VDEM and receive funding each year to continue to operate,” Newton said.

According to the Virginia Communications Cache website, the five cache teams were created following the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, and were modeled from the National Capital Region’s radio cache.

To learn more about Lunenburg and Virginia’s involvement with radio cache, visit www.vacache.org.