Hillsdale County voters to decide on 800-MHz emergency radio needs Aug. 6
HILLSDALE COUNTY — Voters in Hillsdale County will be asked to reconsider a ballot measure aimed at funding the county’s need to upgrade emergency telecommunication systems to the 800-MHz network during the primary election Aug. 6.
A number of emergency services directors, fire chiefs, police chiefs and staff from Hillsdale County 911 gathered Sunday, Jan. 28, to discuss the county’s needs with a representative from Motorola.
A previous ballot measure failed Aug. 2, 2022, when voters turned down the $12 million proposal.
Hillsdale County currently sits on “an island” as being the only county in the tri-state region to continue operating on an outdated system that prohibits and complicates communicating with surrounding jurisdictions and within local services themselves depending on which area of the county they are in.
While some agencies have made the transition on their own, a bulk of area fire departments and police departments continue to operate on the old system.
Needed upgrades include replacing two failing communications towers in the county.
After the 2022 vote, the county lobbied state Rep. Andrew Fink and Sen. Joe Bellino Jr.’s offices for a state appropriation to make the upgrades happen, but those efforts never came to fruition.
Hillsdale County Commissioner Brad Benzing previously said that even if the 911 Board billed the maximum 911 surcharge on all phones in the county at $3 per month, revenues would only increase by $170,000 a year meaning it would take approximately five years to replace the one communications tower alone.
“We’re actually going to struggle to maintain the system we have now in the future,” Benzing — a firefighter and emergency medical technician — said. “We simply do not have the revenue without either an earmark or appropriation from the state or at some future point the voters approving some form of dedicated funding.”
The Hillsdale County Board of Commissioners began looking into upgrading the outdated system countywide in early 2022.
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“As a firefighter and AEMT, as well as the public safety chair, I am disappointed in the outcome,” Benzing said of the 2022 millage failure. “We have been discussing adopting 800-MHz radios since at least 2008, so that makes 16 years at a minimum.”
The Hillsdale County Sheriff’s Office utilized state and federal funding to make the transition already and a number of fire departments and EMS agencies along the county’s eastern border with Lenawee County have already transitioned on their own.
The commissioners discussed using part of the $8.8 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding they received to fund the project, but a majority of that funding has now been earmarked and used for capital improvements of the county’s buildings, mainly at the county’s historic courthouse.
— Contact Reporter Corey Murray at cmurray@hillsdale.net or follow him on X, formerly Twitter: @cmurrayHDN.
This article originally appeared on Hillsdale Daily News: Hillsdale County voters to decide on 800-MHz radio needs Aug. 6
