Federal homeland security grants are revving up business at Lawrence-based Brown Cargo Van Inc.

The company is cruising along with 10 new employees and 17 percent growth during the past year, as local governments throughout Kansas turn to the manufacturer for transforming trucks and vans into specialized vehicles that protect the public.

The latest: Douglas County, whose new $237,000 mobile command vehicle recently rolled out of the 60,000-square-foot plant in southern Lawrence.

“This is a huge improvement for us,” said Bill Brubaker, duty officer for Douglas County Emergency Management and retired training chief for Lawrence-Douglas County Fire & Medical. “And it’s definitely an advantage to have them local: It keeps the money local, and if we ever have any issues with it, they’re right here.”

The mobile command center is a Freightliner truck with Brown Cargo Van’s aluminum cargo box attached to the back.

The command center has four stations for emergency dispatchers, three work stations for emergency officials and enough room to hold four or five more people for meetings — all with access to a working bathroom, sink with running water and a microwave oven ready to warm meals and keep coffee cranking during emergency situations.

The vehicle replaces a converted 1983 school bus with rusted floors and more than 100,000 miles on its inconsistent engine.

Sidney Ashton Garrett, president of Brown Cargo Van, said she welcomed the county’s business, and the responsibility that goes with it.

Her company now has 58 employees. She credits the overall growth in the economy for much of the increase, but acknowledges that homeland security spending has been especially helpful.

Bill Brubaker, duty officer for Douglas County Emergency Management, delivers the new mobile command vehicle to the city public works yard for a cleaning. Decals will be placed on the vehicle Monday. The 37,000 unit, which was built by Lawrence-based Brown Cargo Van, was bought using Homeland Security funds.

Brown Cargo Van has orders for about $700,000 in products tied to such federal grants: 17 counties in Kansas and Missouri are getting mobile command centers similar to Douglas County’s.

Such specialized vehicles cost more than the stock truck bodies that account for the core of Brown’s business, Garrett said. A standard truck body — similar to those attached to truck chassis for Standard Beverage Corp. or Nebraska Furniture Mart — runs about $8,000.

A mobile command center can cost anywhere from $10,000 to $200,000.

“I think it’s great,” Garrett said. “Whether it’s me or any other business in town, anytime the city or the county can buy locally, I think it’s always good for the economy. I wish it wasn’t necessary to have these types of vehicles in demand, but if we can help the city and the county do their jobs better and to keep everyone safe, we’re excited to be a part of that.

“I just hope the only time I see it is up and down Mass. Street in a parade.”

Privately held Brown Cargo Van has been in Lawrence since 1975, when Garrett’s father, Scott Ashton, relocated the business that he had founded in 1946 in Kansas City, Mo.

Brown Cargo Van started as a maker of truck trailers and a seller of truck bodies. Today, the business has expanded to include an array of dry-freight cargo boxes for flatbeds, dump truck utility service vehicles and others.

Brown Cargo Van already has outfitted six evidence-collection vehicles for the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, and a fortified vehicle — including robot compartment — for the bomb squad of the Wichita Police Department.

With such orders continuing to come in, Garrett said, Brown Cargo Van could see an increase in sales this year of 10 percent to 15 percent. That would come after last year’s sales were up 17 percent from the flat years of 2002 and 2003.

“We’re hoping for another good year,” Garrett said.