911 Surcharge Information

• Ionia County 911 is the only emergency 911 answering point in Ionia County and the only dispatch service for police, fire, medical first responder and ambulance service. Equipment, systems and technology to provide a 911 service is very costly to implement, maintain and operate.

• All funding for Ionia County 911 comes from local and state surcharge fees assessed on devices that can contact 911.

• Ionia County 911 does not receive property tax, millage or county general fund money; no city, village or township is charged for 911 services or to dispatch their respective police and fire departments.

• Ionia County 911 receives surcharge income from 3 sources:

• Local Surcharge - 84.5% of our operating funds (currently $2.30 per month on landlines, cellular phones and VOIP telephone systems)

• State of MI shared surcharge - 14.5%.

• State shared dispatcher training money – 1%.

• The surcharge pays for the operation of Ionia County 911 (including all personnel costs, utilities, computers and servers, rent, equipment maintenance/support, insurances, telephone services, equipment updates/replacement etc.), new technology and state-of-the-art service to our residents such as Smart911, TEXT to 911 and the latest technology to accurately locate a 911 cell phone caller.

• Planned future capital update/replacement projects include:

• County fire department radio replacement for full interoperability with county police and ambulance services.

• Replace 20-year-old backup building generator

• Modernize dispatch console positions including cable management floor.

• Previously completed major projects include:

• $500,000 dispatch radio console (end of life) upgrade – January 2016

• $140,000 E-911 IP telephone system upgrade to current and future technology standards, August 2019

• $160,000 replacement for 1998 Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) system to Next Generation 911 standards – go live schedule for November 2020.

• The proposed increase will allow Ionia County 911 to continue to provide state of the art E911 dispatching services to the citizens of Ionia County for years to come.

The proposed surcharge increase would begin July 1, 2021.

Paid for with unrestricted funds by the Citizens for Ionia County 911, P.O. Box 196, Ionia MI 48846