Two new grants—one a $1.1 million award administered through the New Hampshire Department of Safety

Two new grants—one a $1.1 million award administered through the New Hampshire Department of Safety and the other $225,000 in federally directed spending—are expected to be game-changers for Northern Borders Dispatch. Launched four decades ago, headquartered at the Colebrook municipal offices and owned by five towns  the dispatch serves areas in three states and into Quebec, in all 1,434.72 square miles. But with the existing system, challenges in topography make radio communication and sharing information difficult across the nearly 1,5000 square miles of terrain, where cell phones and traditional communications often fall short. The grants will build a system of essential communications equipment that can communicate far more effectively and in real time.