VBT DDA allocates $110,000 to public safety for 911 Viper System

Van Buren Township Police Chief Jason Wright came to the VBT Downtown Development Authority on March 26 to ask for it to re-allocate $35,000 from FUSUS to help pay for a new 911 Viper System. Instead, the DDA allocated $110,000 from its $200,000 public safety line item.
Under state law, the DDA can only spend its funds on things within its district and the 911 system is completely housed in the public safety department at township hall, within the district.
Chief Wright explained that the FUSUS project didn’t come to fruition because of the complicated way it would have to get access to CLEMIS information, which was not possible at this time.
CLEMIS is Oakland County’s Courts & Law Enforcement Management Information System for police department services.
He explained that FUSUS is a great technology but they could not get a pathway into CLEMIS. He said 248 agencies are on CLEMIS and they make sure a vendor gets only the specific information.
“It’s not impossible, but not available right now,” Wright said. He said Kalamazoo was the only one using FUSUS right now, but it’s not on CLEMIS.
So, that was put on hold and the $35,000 the DDA allocated could be used for the new 911 system.
He said the 911 Viper system captures all calls with background, including address and phone number and puts it into the dispatch information. He said they can call back if they lose a call and send a car.
He said VBT’s system is only eight years old and 10 years is the max. He said VBT is the only dispatch in the state using this model. It will cost $174,385 to replace.
He said it has been malfunctioning quite a bit. It gets fixed and then it malfunctions again.
“It’s a crisis thing,” he said, adding it’s end-of-life technology and there will be no support as of Aug. 1.
Chief Wright said the need to replace Viper sprang up two years earlier than they thought.
“If it breaks, they’re not guaranteeing they can fix it,” Chief Wright said. He said when it was purchased, it apparently was a model that was about to be being replaced by a newer model. He said he didn’t know how that happened.
He figured with the $75,000 they had in the police department budget and the $35,000 from the DDA, they could add $64,385 from the drug forfeiture fund and be able to afford the new system.
He said it will take nine months to put it in and they will get the bill next February.
“This is very high-tech and the equipment never leaves the police department, so it stays in the DDA district,” he said, adding this is a sole source so they can’t go out for bids.
He said Viper is in Northville Township, Romulus, Canton, and Metro Airport, so they can back up each other. The service agreement on the new equipment is for five years.
But DDA members agreed this was an urgent matter and took $110,000 out of the public safety line item and allocated it to the new 911 Viper system. The $35,000 stays in the allocation to FUSUS and can be spent when FUSUS can be implemented.
FUSUS provides a platform to view public and community video sources for incidents, with, among other sources, people who are registered being able to send their Ring doorbell images to police.
In other business at the one-hour-three-minute March 26 meeting, the DDA:
• Unanimously approved re-electing Craig Atchinson as chairman and Chris Brown as secretary to serve year-long terms and Mark Laginess as the new vice-chairman, replacing Carol Bird who will be out until June or July as she finishes her chemotherapy;
• Approved the Belleville Road Streetscape Maintenance Agreement with Pioneer Landscaping for $8,410 for quoted items, with an additional $4,970 for additional items that needed to be done, for a total of $13,380;
• Approved renewal of the Harris Park Grounds Maintenance contract with Grounds Control, LLC, in the amount of $12,075, with increases for things that needed to be done. DDA Executive Director Merrie Coburn said last year he underbid himself and did more than scheduled;
• Approved renewal of the Belleville/Ecorse Road Intersection Grounds Maintenance contract with Randy Brown Landscape in the quotation amount of $18,280, plus an increase for things that needed to be done for a total of $22,230;
• Heard Supervisor Kevin McNamara say last year he paid a company with temporary staffing to pick trash along I-94, Van Born, Morton Taylor, and Sheldon roads, since the 34th District Court no longer provides workers. He said he paid $10,000 last year and the roadsides are getting trashed up again. He said now it looks like they never did anything. He asked the DDA for help. Chairman Atchinson said the DDA would pay for pickup as it goes, but only in the DDA district;
• Heard Executive Director Coburn report that the new banner couplings ordered turned out to be the wrong couplings and so they are sending them back to get the right parts. It is expected to take 40 days to get the right couplings for the Business Banners. Chairman Atchinson and DDA member Baskin noted the lights in the streetscape are blinking on one side;
• Heard Coburn give an update on the grants being sought and report that four property owners of the 14 still unsecured have signed for right of way acquisition on Belleville Road. There are several steps to take before the township board is asked to vote on taking the unsigned to court to take the properties legally; and
• Heard Coburn say letters are going out to all the businesses in the DDA district, asking them to clean up for spring. She also said the county supports a dedicated left turn lane signal at the Tyler/Belleville intersection. She said the DDA paid Wade-Trim $10,000 for a study and they said it wasn’t needed. Now, there has been another study and there are figures to support the signal.