Subject: [NEXTEL-1] County likely will ask voters for radios

From: Marcelrf <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2004 15:58:10 -0500

County likely will ask voters for radios
Port Huron Times Herald, MI - Feb 21, 2004

By DAVID JESSE
Times Herald

When Capac Police Chief Raymond
Hawks is patrolling his village's roads,
he has to have his cellular phone.

That's because in five or six locations
in the village and inside most buildings,
his radios don't work.

"We've got to hope and pray nothing
happens," he said. "We all carry
Nextel phones. That's our backup."

Hawks is among local police, fire and
emergency responders hoping a new
800-megahertz communications
system is headed quickly to the area.
The new system would fix the
communications problems in Capac
and allow local agencies to talk directly
with each other, something not
possible now.

The St. Clair County Board of Commissioners is expected to vote in March
on forming an authority to run the new system. Local governments then
would have to vote to join.  A public vote on paying for part, or all,
of the system could come this fall.
The new system is expected to include all of the county's cities,
villages and townships except for the city of Port Huron and Clay
Township. Those two municipalities have their own dispatch centers and
don't wish to join a centralized dispatch.
The $12.4 million system would replace a system installed in the 1970s.
County officials hope to get $7.2 million in federal money but plan to
ask residents to cover the rest. The county already has $750,000 in
federal money for the project.
"All our plans are in place," County Administrator Troy Feltman said.
"It's just a matter of pulling the trigger."

The problem

The biggest problem with the 1970s system was illustrated by a January
snowstorm, county Sheriff Dan Lane said.
As local fire departments from several townships and the sheriff
department responded to 12 different accidents along Interstate 94,
communications quickly broke down.

"In order to talk to them, we had to call dispatch, and they had to
relay it to the fire department and then the departments had to talk to
dispatch and have it relayed to us," Lane said. "If we had the new
system, we could have set up different communications groups and kept it
straight."

The 800-meghertz system, which the state police uses, allows for up to
10 different groups to be set up so they can talk directly with each
other while allowing other radio traffic to use other frequencies.
Capac also has problems communicating with other departments.
"A lot of times we're trying to talk car-to-car with the county, and we
can't," Hawks said. "It's almost to the point where we have to go up the
street and get to a higher spot so it will work."

The new system would require three radio towers placed throughout the
county to improve coverage and an updated county dispatch center in Port
Huron.

The money

Coming up with the $12.4 million likely will involve going to county
residents and asking for either a telephone surcharge or a property-tax
increase.

How much depends on federal funding. The county has asked for $7.2
million in homeland security dollars.
Local residents hope the federal money comes.

"From what I hear, there's a need for it (the system)," said Tim Holtz,
44, of Marysville.  "I'm interested to see how they're going to pay for
it. Hopefully, they'll get most everything from the state or federal
government."
Trevor Smith, 32, of Kimball Township agrees.

"Twelve million dollars is a lot of money to ask us to pay," he said. "I
think to pass a vote, they need to have money already lined up and ask
us for only part of (the total cost)."
Another solution?

If federal money doesn't come through or voters reject a request for
money, the county could look at phasing in the system, Feltman said.

That could include buying one tower at a time and providing service to
just a small section of the county.
Another option could involve buying a mobile tower and several radios,
Feltman said.  The county could use the $750,000 in federal homeland
security dollars it already has to pay for it.

"Of course then there's questions about how many radios to buy," Feltman
said. "It's not going to solve all our issues."
Email this story

Originally published Saturday, February 21, 2004

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