Sumpter Township emergency dispatch services for police and fire personnel is slated to end Jan. 15, when Sumpter’s next-door neighbor Huron Township takes over dispatching services.
The five-year contract calls for Sumpter to pay Huron $155,000 the first year and $175,000 for years two and three (when equipment is needed to be purchased), with renegotiations for years four and five.
Supervisor Johnny Vawters said chances are the renegotiations will be able to reduce the cost below the first year’s fee. If another community joins in the consortium, the cost could be even less.
When Sumpter was part of Central Dispatch in Belleville, each community paid about $142,000. Belleville pulled out and went with Van Buren Township for dispatch and Sumpter has been paying $325,000 a year on its own.
At the regular meeting of the Sumpter Township Board of Trustees on Dec. 13, the board accepted the contract on a 5-1 vote, with Clerk Clarence Hoffman voting no and Trustee Linda Kennedy absent because of a long-term illness.
Clerk Hoffman had preferred going with the Wayne County Sheriff’s Department, which had bid $97,000. But Trustee Alan Bates pointed out if Sumpter went with the county it would lose the 911 funds, which come to about $50,000, making the county’s cost more like $147,000.
But, Sumpter police officers didn’t like the idea of taking prisoners downtown to the jail and preferred taking them over to Huron Township, which is closer.
Four full-time dispatchers and one part-time dispatcher will lose their jobs in Sumpter as of Jan. 15.
“We have very highly trained professionals as dispatchers,” said Sumpter Police Chief Jim Pierce. “They know each day they come closer to their doom, as far as their jobs are concerned, yet they came to work every day … They do an outstanding job. Others would have jumped ship. They show up every day and do their jobs.”
The audience at the township board meeting applauded the dispatchers.
When township attorney Rob Young was asked why Sumpter didn’t have Huron lay off some of its dispatchers so Sumpter dispatchers could have jobs, Young said if Sumpter forced them to take two of its dispatchers, the price would jump to $280,000 a year.
“They have a collective bargaining agreement where they have to hire from within first,” Young said.
If a job opened up and it was posted in Huron and no one wanted it, Huron would have to consider Sumpter dispatchers to hire.
Young said they are working to get more communities in the consortium and if others came in, they would need to hire more dispatchers.
“We’ve been on this for months and it’s been agonizing and difficult,” Young said.
“We tried to get Belleville here and Van Buren here, but they wouldn’t come here,” Vawters said.
Young said local officials are still working on getting the five municipalities of Sumpter, Huron, Van Buren, Belleville and Romulus into one conglomerate.
“We are trying to survive,” Vawters said, adding the township will get more state statutory revenue sharing and save money besides.
“It’s a sad time, a sad moment. We have to sacrifice,” Vawters said.
“I am responsible for the budget, nobody else. I’m not going to sit here and let [Gov.] Snyder come in and take over Sumpter Township.”
He said all of the dispatchers are wonderful and they appreciate the public’s concern. (Three of the four full-time dispatchers losing their jobs are single mothers.)
“It’s a bad time. It’s just a bad time,” Vawters said of the economic climate. He said the township projected landfill revenue of $1 million for this year’s budget and it came in less than $800,000.
He said if the landfill revenue picked up, he would tell Gov. Snyder no thank you for the increased state revenue and take back Sumpter’s dispatch.
Fire Chief Les Powell pointed out that next year the dispatch equipment now at Sumpter will become obsolete with the new 800 MHz system coming in.
The contract was approved pending expected approval by the Huron Township Board at its Dec. 14 meeting.
In other business at the Dec. 13 meeting, the board:
• Approved purchase of a 3000 VHF repeater for fire dispatch from Huron to Sumpter at a cost of $11,715.20, pending approval of the dispatch contract by Huron Township;
• Took no action on a bid of $75,276.50 from Advanced Underground to conduct television inspection of Phase 1 sanitary sewers and agreed to stop the project immediately. Keith Mayer, a Giffels-Webster engineering consultant, recommended that the township could get a better price if rebid over a longer period. But, the board showed no interest in rebidding;
• Took no action on a S-2 grant proposal to study storm water infiltration of the wastewater sewers because it included a mandatory loan application for remediation and board members said they did not have the money to pay back such a loan now. Engineering consultant Keith Uutinen of Metco said the township is paying too much for wastewater sewer treatment because the cost includes infiltrating groundwater and storm water that is being piped into the system;
• Approved closing Sumpter Road for the Sumpter Fest parade on May 26;
• Approved signing a two-year agreement with Wayne County for WIC to occupy the building at 23483 Sumpter, at a cost of $250 per month, to expire Sept. 30, 2013;
• Approved going out for bids for engineers for federal Community Development Block Grant projects;
• Approved the 2012 board and planning commission meeting dates;
• Approved paying planning and zoning board members and secretary any time they show up for scheduled meetings, even if there is not a quorum;
• Approved transfer of $39,000 out of CDBG demolition budget, putting $9,000 of that into senior services and $30,000 into CDBG Housing Rehab;
• Heard Gene Taylor give a presentation from Mothers Against Drunk Driving, urging people to use designated drivers and common sense when celebrating the holidays;
• Discussed the $1,800 spent for cleaning beaver dams out of a county drain for the residents of Sherwood Road. Trustee Bates said County Commissioner Kevin McNamara said to bill the county since Sumpter did their work for the county on its drain;
• Heard Treasurer John Morgan announce that winter tax bills went out the first of December and if property owners have not received them to call the township hall at 461-6201, ext. 239. He also announced the treasurer’s office will be open from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Dec. 31 so taxpayers can come in to pay their bills;
• Heard Vawters’ announce a blood drive at the community center from 12 to 5 p.m. on Jan. 6;
• Approved an amended medical marijuana ordinance effective Jan. 15, with a board resolution setting fees to follow;
• Heard Trustee Bill Hamm praise Deputy Supervisor Craig Moody for having Wayne County out recently when a bridge partially collapsed on Judd Road. “They put a healthy Band Aid on it and it’s safe for now, at least,” Hamm said. Vawters said Moody also is working on a bridge on Elwell Road; and
• Heard Clerk Hoffman announce that Clarence Primm is in Ford Hospital in intensive care.