Photo Keweenaw County Road Commission The Keweenaw County Road Commission building, in Mohawk, was built in 1916 and is in need of repairs.

EAGLE RIVER – At its regular February meeting, the Keweenaw County Board adopted a resolution regarding funding for a Keweenaw County Emergency and Essential Operation Center. The resolution is in cooperation with the Keweenaw County Road Commission (KCRC).

Collaboration between the county and the road commission on the building project offers an opportunity to cost-share while meeting several infrastructure and emergency operations needs within the county, the resolution says.

The resolution goes on say through community feedback and local stakeholder meetings over the past year, the original plans have evolved to not only provide a space for an Emergency Operations Center (EOC), search and rescue equipment storage, volunteer, police and fire department training opportunities, but to also include a much-needed maintenance service center, and office space for the Road Commission.

For several years, county officials have been trying to address the growing need for emergency and rescue services in the Keweenaw County to meet the demands of the continual growth in tourism, the resolution says. In recent years, calls for services in the county have increased by 30%, which has increased the demand for improved infrastructure, emergency response, and multi-agency coordination.

Keweenaw County Sheriff Curt Pennala said those demands have continued to increase yearly since the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, which prompted the organization of Keweenaw Search & Rescue.

The resolution, he said, is a renewal of one passed the previous year.

“The adoption of this resolution is just to keep it up to date,” Pennala said. “They adopted it again to allow us to continue to seek some type of funding, whether private funding, or some type of congressional funding.”

The County Board and the KCRC resolution continues to support the pursuit of possible federal, state, local and private grant funding opportunities that would assist in the further planning, development, design, construction and construction administration of the project.

In January, 2024, Keweenaw County was awarded a $50,000 Rural Readiness Grant from the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity’s Office of Rural Prosperity for a County Emergency Operations Center.

The grant goes back to Aug. 2023, when the County Board approved a request from Julia Petersen, project manager of the Keweenaw Heartlands, the Nature Conservancy of Michigan to submit a Letter of Intent (LOI) to apply for a Rural Readiness Grant through the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD). TNC and the Keweenaw Community Foundation were the co-applicants. The intent was to fund studies for a proposed emergency response center located in Keweenaw County.

Keweenaw County Sheriff Curt Pennala said part of that grant was to study how multiple agencies could work together to develop plans for an Emergency and Essential Operation Center.

The Keweenaw County Board of Commissioners authorized its board members, and the County Sheriff, to explore the operational cost-share agreement of the facility with the KCRC, explore possible tenant/lease opportunities and inform/engage the public and other governmental representatives about the project.

The Board also approved a motion to form a Finance Committee, which includes Board Chair Don Piche and Commissioner Bob DeMarois, along with others such as department heads.