It’s time to start sharing.
That’s the consensus after officials from the Village of Holly, along with Holly, Rose and Groveland townships, attended a meeting on Sept. 23 organized by Holly Township Supervisor Jesse Lambert to discuss the possiblity of combining a host of services, including police, fire and other basic needs.
‘With the decline in state revenues we don’t know what Lansing is going to do,? said Lambert. ‘What else are they going to do? For the benefit of all we need to come up with acceptable share services for North Oakland County. The meetings are designed to be a study group to investigate just what mutual services are possible.
A second meeting is set for 6:30 p.m., Oct. 28 at Holly High School, Karl Richter Campus, 920 E. Baird St., Holly. Proposals from the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office and the Village of Holly Police Department as well as the Michigan State Police will be presented for discussion.
‘The bottom line is that Groveland, Holly, and Rose townships do not pay any mills for police protection,? he said.
‘The area covers 100 square miles with about 3,500-4,000 police complaints per year. There’s no serious or violent crimes in the area. We all depend on the Michigan State Police Groveland Post for protection. But what if the state shuts it down? What then? I don’t want our region of Oakland County to be blindsided.
We have strength in numbers, rather than separate entities.?
Lambert said the North West Oakland County Collaborative task force, will continue to examine an alternative if the Michigan State Police, along with fire, planning commission, special services, and library services for the area.
‘The greatest accomplishment from this meeting is we communicated’we talked about the shared service, it not going to cost us substantially more, this level of communication has not happened before,? he said.
The public is welcome at the Oct. 23 meeting. Check out The Citizen for more details of the meeting.