Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Sheriff Hackel pursues Plan B for radio upgrade- Can U Say Grant Writer?

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Date: Tue, 17 Dec 2002 16:36:16 -0500

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Sheriff Hackel pursues Plan B for radio upgrade

By Chad Selweski, Macomb Daily Staff Writer

November 27, 2002

After the defeat by voters countywide of a phone tax to fund a state-of-the art, $35 million police and fire radio system, the county will proceed on its own, leaving the cities and townships to fend for themselves.

Sheriff Mark Hackel will ask county officials in January to proceed with a $10 million to $15 million upgrade of the Sheriff's Department radio system. The plan will call for a bond sale to borrow money to finance the improvements.

"This is not one of those things that will be left on the shelf," Hackel said. "If we get our own system, the communities could still 'buy into' that system, in time."

The radio system that will be proposed by Hackel would eliminate "dead zones" in Sheriff's Department communications and would replace a 30-year-old communications system for which replacement parts are virtually nonexistent.

The plan will require the construction of radio towers and the purchase of hundreds of portable and patrol car radios. The system would benefit the sheriff's patrol area -- portions of north Macomb, plus Harrison Township.

The 800 megahertz system will put those areas on a par with Wayne, Oakland, Livingston and Lapeer counties.

The ballot proposal that was overwhelmingly defeated Nov. 5 would have provided new radios for all 61 police, fire and ambulance agencies in Macomb County.

Hackel virtually waged a one-man campaign for the proposal, with most fire chiefs, police chiefs and county commissioners sitting on the sidelines.

Now, the sheriff is struggling to get the county Board of Commissioners to come up with a secondary plan for the sheriff's department. He was dismayed to learn that a post-election discussion on the matter won't take place until 2003.

"Everything has been put on hold," Hackel said. "I'm saying, 'Tell me how to pay for this,' but some commissioners don't want to hear about it. I feel like I'm running my head into a brick wall."

Commissioner Phil DiMaria, chairman of the board's Justice and Public Safety Committee, said he wants to offer cities and townships the opportunity to participate in any future bond sale to finance a radio upgrade.

DiMaria, who also serves as a Troy police officer, said Hackel is wrong to blame the board for any delays.

"It's not incumbent upon us to take up his cause," said DiMaria, an Eastpointe Democrat. "Who's to blame? This radio system was becoming obsolete for years and his father (former longtime sheriff William Hackel) never came to us and asked us for new equipment."

Lou Mioduszewski, county director of Emergency Management and Communications, said one option would be for the sheriff's department to hook into the Michigan State Police radio system.

If the county sold bonds for its own upgrade, which Mioduszewski estimates lower than Hackel, at $8 million to $12 million, cities and townships could latch onto that bond sale.

Even if the commissioners quickly approve a bond issue, Hackel said it will take up to three years to get a new radio system up and running.

In addition, the sheriff's goal of universal emergency communications countywide may never happen. The $1.50-a-month telephone tax plan would have allowed all the county's police and firefighters to communicate with each other. Mioduszewski said the county board must focus inward, taking quick steps to fix the sheriff's department inadequacies.

"The sheriff's communications system is not in good shape," he said, "and there's no question it needs to be improved."

©The Macomb Daily 2002

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