MARQUETTE, Mich. (WZMQ) – The Marquette County Board of Commissioners held their regularly scheduled meeting this evening in Marquette. On the agenda were reports from several agencies, including the Lake Superior Community Partnership.
Marquette Sawyer Regional Airport, the Marquette County Sheriff’s department, and recommendations for the Marquette County Climate Action Plan. Those recommendations included transitioning county vehicles to all-electric, phased in over time. The commissioners did, however, believe that emergency vehicles, law enforcement, and search and rescue vehicles will remain gas-powered until technology in EVs becomes more reliable.
“The reality is, emergency service vehicles don’t work right; we don’t have the technology. Today, we’re certainly not going to hog tie our Sheriff’s Department or the emergency services, and the 131 group, looking for electric vehicles that don’t work here,” said board chair Joe Derocha.
The board also voted to expand internet broadband equity, access, and deployment, known as BEAD, to communities lacking high-speed internet access.