ATLANTA — Montmorency County Sheriff Chad Brown told the county Board of Commissioners Wednesday that there have been issues with a new recording system on his department’s phone network.

Brown said he met with representatives from Millennia Technologies and Common Angle to talk about weaknesses and issues that have been discovered lately with the recording system.

“We had an excellent conversation this morning — it was a better part of 45 minutes — and, based on where we’re at right now, we’re operational, we have phones that are working and they are currently recording,” Brown said. “There’s some potential issues with the recording portion and there’s a lot that we three as a team are going to have to really sit down and look at.”

Brown said after the conversation between him, Millennia Technologies, and Common Angle, the three agreed to go back as separate entities and discuss what the sheriff’s department is looking for long-term with the recording system.

Brown, who has been the county sheriff for two years, said the recording system is before his time, so its technology is expiring and maintenance will continue to be expensive. The county purchased the software about five years ago and it was finally implemented this year.

Brown said that, since the software was purchased, things have changed and issues have been discovered during the implementation of the software.

Brown told the commissioners that he should have a good idea of potential solutions within a couple months. When the sheriff’s department submits its budget for 2019, it should include something that might be needed for the recording system.

“It will be best for us to go back, identify some of the issues and shortcomings that we foresee and come back to the board with a definitive solution or solutions to actually present,” he said. “There are some things we need to look at. There might be more than one option for a solution.”

Commissioner Stacy Carroll said things need to be done correctly.

“We need to stop putting Band-Aids on this,” Carroll said. “We might have to invest in a new recording system to get it right.”

Julie Goldberg can be reached at jgoldberg@thealpenanews.com or 989-358-5688.

In other business

The Montmorency County Board of Commissioners on Wednesday also:

∫ proclaimed October as Domestic Violence Awareness Month and Oct. 18 as Conflict Resolution Day in the county.

∫ heard from Chairman Daryl Peterson that there’s a tentative agreement in place with Michigan State University Extension on how money from a new millage voters approved in the August election will be used. Voters approved a 0.25-mill request that will accumulate $125,000 each year for MSUE to continue its programs within Montmorency County.