Commissioners map gaps in cell coverage after reports of failed emergency calls

Commissioners raised concerns that county residents and staff encounter areas of little or no cell coverage, making emergency calls and routine communications unreliable. One commissioner described calls for ambulance or fire where a resident had to drive to the top of a hill to make a call and said, "if their cell phone doesn't work ... it's 2026 and there's no reason why when you drive east of town past my house that your phone should cut out."

Staff and commissioners agreed to collect anecdotal reports and asked townships to provide handwritten notes or maps showing dead or sketchy coverage areas. The board mentioned an advocate who will compile data to present to carriers; the economic development coordinator and county staff were assigned to collect and forward a coverage map to the advocate. Commissioners also tied the issue to fiber deployment and discussed stalled fiber projects that participants said had left some work half-completed in eastern parts of the county.

Why it matters: Lack of reliable cellular coverage can create public-safety risks and impede emergency response in rural areas. Commissioners prioritized gathering empirical coverage data to persuade carriers and coordinate infrastructure planning.