MONTICELLO – Armed with a $7,500 state grant, the Village of Monticello will be purchasing 24 new portable police radios for officers in the department.

Chief Douglas Solomon said Tuesday the new equipment will greatly enhance communications in the department.

“Each officer has a radio issued to them personally and those radios are going on six years old and are starting to break down and malfunction, so this will enable us to replace everyone’s portable radio,” he said.

Several months ago, the village replaced its entire base station and transmission system, all with money from the state’s Impact Tools program from the Division of Criminal Justice Services.

The village board approved the purchase of the portable radios at its Monday night meeting.