Sep. 23—The Cass County Emergency Management Agency has received a $5,000 award from the NIPSCO Gives Back Fund Public Safety Grant to support public safety training in Cass County.

The funding, provided thru the NiSource Charitable Foundation, is part of an effort by NIPSCO to strengthen the communities where they do business.

Rocky Buffum, director for Cass County EMA, is excited about the doors opened for county responders because of this support.

"In 2022 we spent a lot of time on foundation work for the emergency response system," he said. "This included HAZMAT Awareness and Operations Training, more certified emergency services instructors, and Incident Command System Training including the Incident Safety Officer program from the National Fire Academy. The support from NIPSCO helps open the gateway to the next level of course offerings, such as Technician level HAZMAT Training or Tactical Casualty Care courses which bring fire, EMS and law enforcement together and further enhance the county public safety team."

Buffum also said these advanced offerings are in addition to, and do not replace the agencies basic level training programs.

EMA will arrange instructors and materials for course offerings in the months ahead.