May 28, 2024 8:10p
(WGTD)----Racine County Executive Jonathan Delagrave used his annual ‘state of the county’ address Tuesday night to sound some warning bells.
Describing the county as being at a crossroads, Delagrave told county board supervisors that some hard decisions will have to be made.
Top of the list includes replacement of both an aging sheriff’s department substation and a 9-1-1 emergency call system that Delagrave described as being obsolete. "Our 911 system does go down from time to time. Thankfully Kenosha county backs us up. But we need to do something about it," he said.
Building a new substation around a new 9-1-1 system would be a cost-efficient way to handle both issues, Delagrave said.
Other urgent needs as identified by Delagrave included reconstruction of part of the aging Reefpoint Marina, expanding the county’s veteran’s service office and dealing with fentanyl and mental health issues.
"if we do nothing it may seem easy at first but in the long run our residents will bear the consequences of our indecision," Delagrave said. "And indecision is quite frankly what I fear the most."
Delagrave is expected to roll out options in advance of this fall’s county budget deliberations.
Delagrave implied that some of the decisions supervisors will be asked to make will run counter to their historically frugal nature. Racine County ranks last in per capita spending among the state’s 72 counties.
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