Anderson, Abbeville, Barnwell and Jasper counties were honored with the Barrett Lawrimore Regional Cooperation Award for Operation Help Thy Neighbor during the 47th Annual South Carolina Association of Counties conference on Tuesday evening.

Additionally, Anderson County won Honorable Mention in the J. Mitchell Graham Award competition for pioneering the SafeTown application.

Descriptions of the Projects:

J. Mitchell Graham Award
SafeTown Anderson County
Anderson County served as a pioneer for SafeTown, a platform developed to interface with public safety software that allows dispatchers, incident responders (law enforcement, fire, EMS), correctional officers, and the public to collaborate and share information. The County holds the distinction of being the first in the nation to implement the platform and is the only county in the state with the designation, SafeTown.
Link to video presentation:
http://youtu.be/4-sk9PXDQhA?list=UUbi_CFJAQVgKpx3LxUUt7iw


Barrett Lawrimore Regional Cooperation Award
Operation Help Thy Neighbor
The concept of expanding the Western Piedmont Regional Emergency Management Taskforce model to other counties, even counties not in the same region, was put to the test, in a real-world emergency situation when Winter Sorm Pax descended on Barnwell County. Relying on common platforms and similar emergency plans to assist the impacted region, Abbeville, Anderson and Jasper counties, along with the SC State Guard, Salvation Army, Red Cross, FEMA and the Southern Baptist Disaster Relief Team put Operation Help Thy Neighbor into action.
Link to video presentation:
http://youtu.be/-fVygd1ITxs?list=UUbi_CFJAQVgKpx3LxUUt7iw

ABOUT THE AWARDS
The J. Mitchell Graham/Barrett Lawrimore Memorial Awards recognize innovative projects completed by South Carolina's counties during the past fiscal year. Winners represent the best qualities of local governance-attention to details, service to citizens, efficient use of tax dollars, and improvement in the quality of life. They demonstrate how creative problem-solving and collaboration can achieve impressive results, and offer new ideas for other counties to consider.

The J. Mitchell Graham Memorial Award recognizes counties that address community challenges, implement operational improvements, or enhance their citizens' quality of life in a unique way.

The Barrett Lawrimore Memorial Regional Cooperation Award highlights the growing need for regional partnerships, strategies, and solutions. Competition for this award is open to two or more political subdivisions (counties or county partnerships formed with city, town, district, or regional government organizations) that worked together on a project.