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Board approves central dispatch updates

Johnson

MARQUETTE — The Marquette County Board of Commissioners unanimously voted on several central dispatch upgrades Tuesday night.

Marquette County Central Dispatch has been working with the Upper Peninsula 911 Authority over the last year to upgrade its computer aided dispatch system to allow for in-vehicle CAD mobile and automatic vehicle location, according to central dispatch Manager Gary Johnson.

The upgrade will allow police and fire departments and emergency medical services to receive all CAD information through mobile computers, tablets and smart phones.

The program will also include tracking units visually on digital maps, Johnson said. The upgrade will improve responder safety because they’ll be able to be located efficiently.

Central dispatch estimates a $25,000 budget for the project — however U.P. 911 has secured Homeland Security grants to cover the cost.

Another important upgrade noted in Tuesday’s meeting was an upcoming improvement to the radio tower that’s located near Marquette Mountain.

According to Johnson, central dispatch was required by the Federal Communications Commission to “narrow band” VHF radio frequencies.

A negative impact is that there’s been reduced coverage from tower sites.

Central dispatch will need to replace the combiner that’s currently used with duplexers — duplexers will allow each transmitter to use its own antenna which will increase the output power, providing better coverage, said Johnson.

Another upgrade that was approved by the board is a mobile safety software called Smart 911.

“Smart 911 allows citizens and businesses to go to a website and provide us with important information that’ll pop up when they call 911,” Johnson said.

Johnson said that participants can provide their address, emergency contacts, medical conditions and whatever other important information they want to use in case of an emergency.

According to Johnson, 70 percent of emergency calls come from wireless phones that don’t have traditional street addresses.

“Right now, we just hope there’s a good enough GPS signal but if someone calls from a multi-level building, we can’t always tell what floor they’re on,” he said.

Smart 911 would make it so dispatch services wouldn’t have to rely so heavily on callers telling them their location.

Since privacy issues might be questioned, Johnson said, the program is exempt from Freedom of Information Act. A person’s information will only be accessible 45 minutes after they’ve called 911.

So far, the state Legislature has provided funding for two years to any 911 centers that add Smart 911. The program will be no cost if centers sign up for the program prior to Oct. 1.

“If state funding stops, we can opt out of the program and walk away without paying any money,” Johnson said.

The county board approved several other projects Tuesday. These include:

• Authorizing an agreement allowing Superior Extrusion Inc. to lease 7.41 acres of Sawyer International Airport’s property for the construction of a scrap bay on Parcel AL-63. The remainder of AL-63 will be used for access and parking. With the development, 30 new jobs will be created.

• Approving an agreement with Sawyer’s engineering firm, Mead and Hunt Inc., to provide administration tasks throughout constructing of shortening runway 1/19. $463,850 will be funded by a grant that the county won’t have to pay for.

• Authorizing the 2017 Emergency Management Performance annual grant which covers 35.7 percent of the emergency management coordinators wages and benefits.

• Signing a resolution opposing SB 386 of 2017. County treasurer Anne Giroux believes the “vague bill” would undermine the process for collecting delinquent real property taxes.

• Switching to a comparable and less costly Medicare insurance policy for post-age 65 customers. The approved plan through 44North will reduce some deductibles, out-of-pocket expenditures and save the county up to $12,000 a month.

• SEMCO Energy recently announced the potential expansion of a natural gas pipeline that will cross county owned land in Marquette County. The board is allowing SEMCO to move forward with conducting surveys and engineering tasks. SEMCO proposes to complete the survey as soon as possible and will pay or restore property to “as close to its original condition” if any damage occurs, according to a letter from consultant agent Haakon K. Hagemeister.

Board chairman Gerry Corkin believes that the project is an important one.

“As far as one of the limited factors in the U.P. development goes, (it) is the gas issue,” Corkin said.

The board also approved to continue funding the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative which helps fight invasive species in the Great Lakes, cleaning contaminated areas and much more.

Jaymie Depew can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 206. Her email address is jdepew@miningjournal.net.

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