BEAULAH — Benzie County Emergency Manager Rebecca Hubers applied for a grant of more than $22,000 from the Michigan State Police and Community Service Division to create detailed digital maps of public facilities. The project aims to provide first responders with building layouts before they arrive at the scene of an emergency.
The mapping initiative focuses on locations where large groups congregate, including hospitals, schools and government centers. These digital maps would show critical features such as entrances, exits, stairwells, alarms and utility shut-offs to reduce confusion and improve response times.
Hubers emphasized that while the county lacks high risk industrial sites, it must ensure that public gathering spaces are secure.
“We don’t have nuclear plants or anything like that, but we do have places where a lot of people congregate like hospitals, government centers and schools and we want to make sure those facilities are protected,” Hubers said.
The maps are also intended to assist emergency personnel who arrive from surrounding areas to help local teams. Hubers noted that the county often relies on mutual aid during significant incidents.
“Benzie County has limited resources, so when partners come in from other counties, they’re not familiar with the facility,” Hubers said. “Having those maps helps us explain where they need to be and makes everything more efficient and timely.”
Benzie County Administrator Katlyn Zeits said the grant would expand on mapping work already completed for local public schools. She explained that having precise data on where people are located and how to enter a building allows responders to better protect those inside.
Zeits described how the information would be utilized during a crisis.
“If there was an emergency in this building, mapping would help with locations where they can enter, where people are, where the exits are, this helps those first responders know where to go so they can protect the folks that are inside,” Zeits said.
Once created, the digital maps would be hosted within dispatch systems. This allows the layouts to be accessed immediately during an emergency call, preventing responders from having to search for access points after arriving on the scene.
Benzie County officials expect to find out if the grant has been awarded on April 1.