BAR HARBOR — A detailed list of how to spend nearly $500,000 in federal homeland security funds awarded to the town in May was received by officials here July 18.

Big ticket items include a rigid-hull inflatable boat (RIB), new air system for the fire department, an expanded float system in the harbor, and a new radio frequency (RF) communications system for the police, fire, and harbor departments.

A $45,000 mass casualty incident trailer, capable of providing medical assistance for up to 60 people during an emergency, also is on the list.

The homeland security grant award represents half of the $1 million safety grant officials applied for in March. A surveillance component of the grant that included a $400,000 expansion of the harbormaster’s facility, four outdoor cameras, and a coastal radar system was not funded.

However, Police Chief Nate Young said some of the items in the surveillance portion of the grant, totaling $100,000 in electronics, could still be acquired, if the approved security equipment can be purchased for less than the listed amount.

“The overture that’s been made is that, as long as we make purchases that are in the authorized expenditure list … we will be able to make other purchases,” Chief Young said. “Our understanding is that, moneys that you don’t spend on other parts of this application could be shifted over, as long as we don’t go outside of the purchasing guidelines,” he said.

As an example, he said, the $250,000 RIB listed in the grant budget would likely be overkill for the real needs here, and could very likely be replaced with a less expensive model.

Officials believed all along that they would be told how to spend the grant money. A spokesperson from Sen. Susan Collins’ office, however, said following the award announcement in May that the town officials would be free to make purchases at their discretion within the confines of the general grant headings.

Both interpretations turned out to be the somewhat accurate, Chief Young said. All of the listed purchases fall under the Harbor Security Patrols and Response component of the grant. While they are specific, the latitude to purchase brands and models that has been left to the town does provide for a lot of discretion at the local level, he said.

“The flexibility built within the program is encouraging,” he said.

It will still be left to the town council to accept the grant, once the money actually arrives. Then, Chief Young said, the most important step will be to set up capital improvement budgets to fund the repair and replacement of the new equipment over the years.

This capital funding looks to be largely in place, following last week’s approval of an expanded fee schedule for cruise ships. With the new $4-per-passenger fee, a projected $250,000 per year in funding for harbor and safety operations is expected to start coming in next year.

In approving the rate hike, the town council discussed potential options for setting an operations budget, and they included forming accounts for equipment repair and replacement that would be funded every year.