[TrunkCom] Macomb County, Michigan may face new tax to pay for TRS

[Ron Wilbanks]

Phone tax weighed to upgrade police radios


By Chad Selweski, Macomb Daily Staff Writer July 10, 2002




Macomb County residents and businesses may face a new telephone tax to
pay for a $35 million upgrade to the county's police radio system.
A proposal, which may be placed on the November countywide ballot, would
levy a $1.50 monthly surcharge per phone line to pay for the new system,
which would benefit the county's 61 police, fire and ambulance
departments.

"The current (radio) system is failing. It's obsolete. It's outdated,"
Sheriff Mark Hackel said. "There's an officer safety issue, a danger
with the current system. But the other factor is public safety, to make
sure we can respond properly to situations."

The radio system, which dates back to the late 1960s, doesn't allow
police and firefighters to communicate directly with their colleagues in
other communities. Within each department, car-to-car communications are
limited and only one officer can talk at a time during conversations on
portable radios.

In the northern areas of the county, about one-third of portable radio
conversations with sheriff's deputies fail because of radio system
shortcomings.

All of those deficiencies would be corrected with the $35 million
upgrade.

The proposal is unanimously supported by the county's police and fire
chiefs.

The 800 megahertz system proposed would put Macomb's system on a par
with Wayne, Oakland, Livingston and Lapeer counties. In neighboring
Oakland County, residents pay a 57-cent monthly surcharge for their 800
MHz system, which is expected to be completed in about two years. They
will pay the surcharge for about eight years.

The proposed $1.50 monthly charge in Macomb would be paid for in four
years, beginning in early 2003, for a total cost of $72 per phone line.

"This is a serious, serious public safety issue," said Lou Mioduszewski,
director of the Emergency Management and Communications Department. "I
don't think $1.50 a month is too much to ask to develop a complete radio
system for 27 jurisdictions, for what we're trying to do on a massive
scale."

If approved by voters, work on the project would begin in July 2003 and
last three years.

Some radio towers would be constructed, but the bulk of the costs would
come from the purchase of 1,200 radios for patrol cars, fire trucks and
ambulances and 2,000 portable radios for personnel to carry.

Hackel said businesses with dozens of phone lines would pay a
substantial surcharge, but the sheriff said all of the county's chambers
of commerce have expressed support for the plan.

The county Board of Commissioners discussed the proposal Tuesday and
will vote Aug. 15 on whether to place it on the November ballot.

"I can't think of anything," board Chairman John Hertel said, "that's
more appropriately called a life or death situation than the problems we
have with our current radio system."


http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=4694884&BRD=988&PAG=461&dept_id=141265&rfi=8




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