March 29, 2024

County supervisors approve EMS lease agreement

A lease agreement between Union County and Motorola following a public hearing during Monday’s regular Union County Board of Supervisors meeting.

The motion, moved by Dennis Brown and seconded by Dale Cline, Union County supervisors, permits the county to move forward into a three year lease agreement, which offers no-interest and no payments to be made in the first 12 months.

Union County Supervisor Ron Riley said the overall cost of the project and maintenance would be right at $7.1 million, which the county is considering a 10 year “general obligation bond” to cover the expense and is currently seeking other funding possibilities through the UCDA, SICOG and the state legislature.

Union County Veterans Affairs Director Kevin Provost spoke first at the public hearing by voicing his support.

Provost, who worked as a Michigan state police officer for 26 years, said he understands what it’s like to work with good and bad equipment. During his tenure, emergency personnel in Michigan went through a similar upgrade from analog to digital radio systems with Motorola, which improved connectivity across the state.

“It’s an invaluable tool when you’re trying to locate houses, if you’re trying to call for back up and if you’re just trying to call the hospital to get instructions from doctors for the paramedics,” said Provost. “I know it’s expensive, but I think as time goes by it will get more expensive. It’s well worth the money for the lives of people you’re trying to serve in the county as well as all of your first responders.”

Dorothy McNaught of Afton asked if the county’s system would be integrated with other counties across the state, if competitive bids were considered, if the price justified the equipment and services, what updates it requires, the impact it will have on property taxes and how much taxpayers can expect to see their taxes increased by.

Riley said of the two bids received from RACOM and Motorola, the bid they chose is approximately $900,000 more expensive, but after consulting a number of experts in emergency management, and advisers in local and state government, the board felt it was a “superior or better option.”

As far as property taxes, the board based their assessment on $100,000 worth of assessed value and compared how it would affect ag land, residential, commercial, industrial and multi-residential properties.

At current rates, Riley said ag land worth $100,000 would have a taxable value of $54,484 based on the rollback rate of 54.4 percent and placing a possible $1.25 on a debt service levy this year is yet to be determined.

Union County Treasurer Kelly Busch spoke against the project.

“I’m not saying it’s not necessary, I know that it’s necessary, public safety is a top priority, I just don’t feel that right now, financially, it’s a good decision for the county,” said Busch.

Busch said the county is currently sitting at about $4 million in debt, which is lower than the $8 million it was in debt in 2010. She pointed out, since then, when the county’s debt was at it’s highest, factories have closed, one has filed bankruptcy and storefronts uptown remain empty.

Additionally, Busch said the county needs to take into account the unpredictability of the election, state credits, state funding, and potential increases of other levying entities, such as the college, hospital, city or community schools.

“I know what it was like in 2010, and I know the conversations that happened at my counter as tax collector. I just feel that the county, financially, can’t afford it, this price tag, nor we as tax payers,” said Busch.

To save money, Busch suggested waiting and allowing other counties to build out their systems to see if there was a potential of tapping into their towers.

Union County Dispatcher Mark Williams said they have explored other options to reduce the price tag of the budget, such as not building a new tower, which he said is approximately $1.4 million of the budget proposal.

“The risk we run into there is losing coverage on the east side of the county ... all southeast townships where we have no radio reception now,” said Williams. “If we did that, we’d be relying on other counties to build towers and hoping their coverage expands in to us.”

Williams said they had considered an upgrade using VHF, which is what they currently have, by building on the existing infrastructure, which he said is the same cost. This option wasn’t viable because the state is expected to do more narrow-banding, which will cut available frequencies in half.

“Everyone in this room knows it’s a big price tag and everybody in this room are taxpayers, but, ... there’s never a good time to spend $7 million dollars,” said Riley. “I don’t care if it’s two years down the road, or three years down the road. We’re still going to be facing this.”

Riley said the problem and price is not unique to Union County. Currently, Montgomery, Mills, Fremont and Page counties are building out new EMS communication systems at comparable price tags.

Jo Anne Duckworth, Union County emergency management director, said a bid offered by RACOM would have increased maintenance costs by hosting two cores in the county.

“That cost would have been totally overwhelming,” said Duckworth. “Just being able to put them (first responders) out there with a system that will work every time is invaluable for us.”

Duckworth said, when the tornado hit Creston in 2012, the area was swarming with local and state emergency personnel, yet no one knew what the other was doing because they couldn’t communicate with the other.

“This will solve that issue,” said Duckworth.

Afton Fire Chief Brett Weis said, during a house fire two weeks ago, a the floor collapsed and the three firefighters inside had to extricate themselves and he was unable to communicate with the other departments (Lorimor, Murray and Creston) because of their distance.

“I pay a lot of taxes in this county also. I own farm ground, hog buildings, everything. So, I’m going to feel it just as much as everybody else is, but this could not be more essential right now,” said Weis.

Deb Stuchel of Lorimor Rescue and Jen Worisek, Greater Regional paramedic, expressed their frustration trying to communicate in rural areas of the county.

“Just so everyone else is aware, our town can’t even be dispatched by Union County and we are in Union County,” said Stuchel. “We get dispatched by Madison County and there is a major, major delay from 911 calls to get us dispatched. Even when we are on call, we can’t communicate with Creston coming in or anybody else.”

“It has to be frustrating for them because they are trying to figure out where we are and it’s frustrating for us because we are trying to figure out where they are at,” said Worisek.

Brian Flynn, Motorola account manager, said the price tag, which provides equipment and coverage for the entire county, has been engineered to keep costs down. He pointed out that the four site design is utilizing three existing water towers, which saves the county $1.5 million by not building three new towers.

Additionally, the board negotiated, and Motorola approved, the inclusion of five additional emergency school radios at no additional cost, which was suggested by Rick Friday in a previous meeting.

“I thought about this decision more than any decision I have made in the 12 years that I’ve been here,” said Riley. “It’s been tough.”

Riley said the new system will bring back dispatching capabilities the county hasn’t had in a long time and new, emergency communications into the school, which hasn’t been done before.

“Our goal here as a board is primarily policy making and budgetary. So when someone comes to us with a problem, we have to decide if it’s a problem that needs to be solved with county resources, which is [your] dollars,” said Brown. “I don’t like the price tag ... but it is what it is and I think it’s necessary.”

Cline started to speak but became emotional.

“Like Deb said, ‘How can we put a price on a life?’ Excuse me for being emotional. I’ve been in this situation before where minutes make a difference,” said Cline.

Cline said the decision is difficult for him because, as a trustee, he aims at being cost effective and saving taxpayers money.

Cline said, in their research, he reviewed another state’s system and found that by choosing the least expensive bid cost them nearly double because the competing vendor had to correct the communications system.

“My grand pap always taught me, if you’re going to do a project in life, do it right the first time so you don’t have to fix it later,” said Cline. “Minutes count. Seconds count.”

Public hearing

Union County Board of Supervisors will hold a public hearing Nov. 19 to consider bonding options. Supervisors meetings open with public forum 9 a.m. Mondays at 300 N. Pine St., Suite 10.