Thursday, March 12, the Oceana County Sheriff’s Office (OSCO) presented two motions for the Oceana County Board of Commissioners to approve: authorization to apply for a body-worn camera grant and a purchase approval for 18 automated external defibrillators.
The Small Rural Tribal Body-Worn Camera grant, provided by the U.S. Department of Justice, seeks to fully fund the total cost to purchase the Motorola body cameras and the necessary Cloud storage, which the OCSO estimates at up to $120,968. The estimated cost does not include yearly Cloud storage fees, however, the OCSO does not have the virtual space onsite to store the large amount of data expected from the body cameras, which also connect to vehicle dashcams. They are also seeking the funds of another grant, up to $7,000 from the Michigan Municipal Risk Management Authority’s Mini-RAP grant, which was also brought to the board for approval.
In his presentation to commissioners, Undersheriff Ryan Schiller explained that the hope is the full cost of the cameras will be covered by both grants and that he does not want to ask commissioners to contribute anything from the general fund, however, it has been tricky to get a clear cost estimate from the tech providers. The OSCO expects to know the outcome of the grant by July. If the grant is awarded, the issue will come back to the commissioners to approve accepting the funds and camera purchase.
Following the grant applications, Schiller presented “a more fun request,” the purchase of 18 automated defibrillators for patrol vehicles, with funds raised through a community-backed initiative. The purchase of AEDs was campaigned for by Heather Hallack and Lloyd Miller, with the intention of providing effective medical equipment for first-responders to cardiac emergencies. Women Who Care of Oceana County helped to fully fund this initiative, and posted the following on their Facebook page this past December, "Our donation this quarter to finish out the year goes to Friends of the Oceana County Sheriff. As many of you know from stories in The Echo, the Sheriff's department is raising funds for (18) new or replacement AEDs in order to equip all of their vehicles with these life saving devices. So far $17,000 has been raised toward the total $25,000 project expense. Our funds will enable them to complete the AED project, with the excess going toward the purchase of an Unmanned Aircraft System, more commonly known as a drone."
The purchase was met with enthusiasm by both commissioners and the OSCO, with Schiller explaining that these AEDs in particular “are going to be a great device for the long-haul.”
Said Commissioner Tim Beggs of the community effort, “Thank you and well done to everyone who was involved. [It is] a great initiative from a real-life situation that had a positive outcome, and hopefully those positive outcomes will be multiplied through this program.”
Commissioner Paul Erickson agreed with the sentiment, saying, “I’m proud of Heather and proud of what’s happened, and thankful that we have a Community Foundation that’s willing to step up and help facilitate these things for our community. We’re very fortunate to have something like this happen. That one life that’s saved makes it all well worth it.”
Both the body-worn camera grants and the AED purchases were unanimously approved by the board.
In his department head report, Sheriff Craig Mast gave commissioners a heads-up on an agenda item likely coming in the near future, as Golden Township seeks a dedicated, full-time deputy.
Also for grants, Oceana County Emergency Manager Troy Maloney asked the board to approve reimbursement funds from the 2025 Emergency Management Performance Grant. The total reimbursement comes to $6,786 and funds a small portion of Maloney’s salary. While he admitted that the work put into preparing the yearly grant application is likely more than the returns are worth, if the county pulls out of the grant, they forfeit any future funds. Maloney said it’s better to just keep with the grant.
The board also approved an increase in internet bandwidth for county buildings at the request of the Oceana County Courthouse staff. The one-time cost of $5,337 - with an additional $450 per year - will be made to the county and the City of Hart’s internet provider, Merit, and will come from the building improvement fund.
Finally, the board appointed Jack Iwema as business representative to the Materials Management Planning Committee, replacing former member Vaughn White’s term through 2029. Iwema comes at the recommendation of both Commissioners Joel McCormick and Beggs, with the latter saying, “He has a lifelong background in waste hauling, from driving a garbage truck to executive levels… He’s been all over the garbage world, I guess you’d call it, but he probably has a fancier way to say that.”
