By Shelby Stewart
Staff Writer
Brandon Twp.- On Monday night, the township board unanimously approved using some American Rescue Plan Act funds to purchase 18 portable radios for the Brandon Fire Department.
“The current radio system we have is out of date, the equipment that we have was at end-of-life two years ago,” said Dave Kwapis, Brandon fire chief. “Oakland County has decided that they want to upgrade that system, which we need to do.”
The current radio system used by all of the agencies in Oakland County was implemented in August 2009, and is completely maintained by Oakland County. The new system will be on a state system instead of just the county.
“By doing this, it’s going to cost money, and it came in for Oakland County much higher,” said Kwapis. “So, in their plan to try and cut costs where they could, they reduced the number of radios. That caused us an 18 portable radio reduction.”
The number of mobile radios and control stations were not reduced, so those will be replaced at the current number. The cost of the additional radios will not exceed $135,000, and they will be the same type as the ones provided by the county.
“It’s going to be all the same, and when we do purchase these, they will fall under the Oakland County maintenance plan, and they will maintain those radios along with the other ones,” said Kwapis.
The 24 radios provided by the county, plus the 18 additional purchased by the township, will replace the current number of radios.

“It’s to make sure that we have a radio for each firefighter that is going into a building,” said Kwapis. “While this will not cover all of our personnel, it will cover 95 percent of our personnel.”
The amount needed will not impact other projects that are budgeted to use the townships ARPA funds.