A consortium of about 300 Upper Peninsula emergency service agencies is seeking up to $23 million to upgrade digital radio communications. The Upper Peninsula Interoperable Com-munications Consortium is comprised of agencies in each of the U.P.’s 15 counties and three Indian tribes and was formed to find funding to supply all local emergency response departments with handheld and mobile 800 MHz radios, said Mackinac County 9-1-1 Coordinator Pam Matelski, Mackinac County’s representative in the consortium.

The group is seeking $7.2 million for handheld radios, $4.5 million for mobile data computers, and an estimated $3 million for infrastructure upgrades. Another $8 million will be used to upgrade radio towers in the U.P. and centralize equipment at the state’s network control center in Lansing.

The group hopes to tap federal Homeland Security funds.

The upgrades will allow the various agencies to communicate. Of the 300 U.P. agencies involved, only 99 are using the new state communications system in some form, Ms. Matelski said.

“The only agencies in Mackinac County that will be fully equipped would be the police departments at this point, but not all of the departments in the U.P. are,” Ms. Matelski said. “In Mackinac County, we have mobile radios in all first responder vehicles, but we only have portable radios for the command staff.”

The funding will be used to purchase 800 megahertz (MHz) radios for many agencies, upgrading them from the analog radios Ms. Matelski said are outdated. The consortium wants to equip agencies like, for example, Mackinac Island Fire Department to have the capabilities to communicate with Mackinaw City police or St. Ignace Fire Department through the new digital technology.

The funding will also be used to purchase mobile data computers to be installed in many emergency service vehicles, and it will help upgrade agency infrastructures across the U.P.

Counties in Michigan have been steadily upgrading since the Michigan State Police switched its entire communication system to the 800 MHz radio system in 2002. The 800 MHz radio communication system makes communication possible to any agency throughout the state with the same system.

Ms. Matelski, the consortium’s aim isn’t to upgrade the 9-1-1 systems, but rather to provide all of the U.P.’s emergency units to communicate state-wide. Bois Blanc Island in Mackinac County and all of Baraga County are included in the consortium to obtain 800 MHz radio equipment, but neither are participating in a 9-1-1 program.

Mackinaw City in Emmet County, although it has a 9-1-1 program, uses its own radio communication system covering Cheboygan, Charlevoix, and Emmet counties, which has been up and running since 1996.

Mackinac County, said Ms. Matelski, needs about $500,000 to supply all of its agencies with the new 800 MHz digital equipment.

The consortium’s proposal, she said, has been presented to U.S. Congressman Bart Stupak, U.S. Congresswoman Debbie Stabenow, U.S. Senator Carl Levin, and to Governor Jennifer Granholm with the hope that it will receive a special appropriation from the federal legislature.

“We’re hoping to first secure funds for our first responders’ equipment and then, hopefully, have the rest of the funds appropriated over a three or four year period,” Ms. Matelski said.