Last week the Oak Bluffs police department received a $275,058 grant from the Department of Justice to rehire for three years an officer who was let go in July due to town budget cuts. The grant is part of the Department of Justice’s COPS hiring program which seeks to maintain adequate policing resources in communities that face budget shortfalls and layoffs.

In a press release Oak Bluffs town administrator Michael Dutton lauded the efforts of police chief Erik Blake in acquiring the funding.

“Chief Blake and his staff deserve our thanks for solving budget shortfalls by both cutting back expenses and seeking alternative funding sources,” Mr. Dutton said. “The department’s effort to secure this funding was monumental, and involved collecting detailed statistics and financial data, as well as making a clear case that the loss of one of our officers would severely hamper our community policing efforts.”

Four other Massachusetts towns qualified for the grant money including Abington, Barnstable, Methuen and Saugus.