ISLE OF WIGHT-A state grant will be used to help Isle of Wight County better coordinate its emergency communications and geographic information systems.

County officials plan to use the money from the Virginia Wireless E-911 Services Board to develop a system that will help emergency services personnel quickly locate people calling 911 from their mobile phones.

The $17,600 grant must be augmented with a $4,400 local contribution, according to Don Robertson, Isle of Wight's public information officer.

The money will be used to buy a server with enough storage space to hold all of the county’s GIS data, including the latest aerial photography. Having easy access to all of that information will allow Isle of Wight to develop better maps for mobile applications, according to Robertson.