The Auburn Police Department has been awarded $262,000 in federal grant money to rehire a police officer who was laid off last month.

The award comes from the Department of Justice’s COPS Hiring Recovery Program, which announced $1 billion in funding Tuesday to help state, local and tribal law agencies create or preserve nearly 5,000 law enforcement positions across the country.

Auburn was the only Placer County police agency to receive funding. Statewide, 649 officers will be retained or hired among 109 different agencies.

Funding for the grants was authorized by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act signed by President Barack Obama in February.

Capt. John Ruffcorn with the Auburn Police Department wrote the grant for the funds.

“I knew the city was not in the greatest of economic positions, so I thought there might be a need and an opportunity for us to obtain some of the money,” he said Tuesday.

Ruffcorn started working on the application as soon as the funding was announced and only had 30 days to meet the April 14 deadline.

Auburn’s grant money will be used to fund one officer for three years and requires a fourth year’s salary be paid for by APD.

In June, the city had to lay off two patrol officers in order to shore up the police department’s budget. One of those officers would be rehired, Ruffcorn said.

Auburn business owner Ben Asgharzadeh said he was disappointed the city had to let two officers go, but is pleased one will be returning.

“This is 100 percent going to help. This way they can respond to calls faster and take care of things faster. This will give relief to the merchants,” he said.

Asgharzadeh, who owns The Golden Swann jewelry and collectibles store, said he’s glad the Recovery Act money is being spent on a service the community really needs.

Ruffcorn said putting an officer back on the roster means the department will be able to continue its culture of community-based law enforcement.

“Basically, it keeps us going in the direction we were already headed,” he said. “We’ve started down the path where we want to increase our community-oriented policing efforts. We’re not just handling 911 calls, we want to get out there and go business to business and introduce ourselves and collaborate on these efforts. We can’t do everything ourselves, it’s going to take a community effort and we want to make sure we are a part of that community.”

Although he had never written a grant before, Ruffcorn has already netted two awards for the department. Auburn police also received a grant to help upgrade radio communications.

“I’m two for three now,” he said. “Someone told me if you’ve got 50 percent you’re doing OK.”