Larsen seeks $4 million for Island County safety upgrades

U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen is seeking $4.03 million for two Island County safety projects that would strengthen communications and keep key government buildings operating when the lights go out.

The larger request, $3 million for the Island County Sheriff Radio Upgrade Project, is aimed at the kind of basic public-safety problem that can turn dangerous fast on Whidbey Island: whether deputies, dispatchers and emergency responders can actually stay connected when conditions are rough. The second request, $1,031,250 for Island County Emergency Power Resiliency, would pay for new emergency generators and related infrastructure at county government offices, the county jail and the county’s law-and-justice building.

Larsen’s office submitted the requests to the House Appropriations Committee on April 1 as part of a $77,113,331 package for 20 local projects across Legislative District 2. The office stressed that a submission is not a guarantee of funding, a reminder that the county’s hopes still depend on the outcome of a crowded federal process.

For Island County, the stakes are immediate. The Department of Emergency Management says it is responsible for preparedness, mitigation, response and recovery during emergencies, and it runs the county Emergency Operations Center when activated. That mission depends on dependable power and communications, especially in a county where storms, earthquakes, flooding, tsunami risk, wildland-urban interface fire danger and winter outages can isolate neighborhoods and slow response.

The radio request lands in the middle of that reality. ICOM 911 has warned that the county’s current dispatch system is aging, vulnerable to outages and unable to reliably connect in some parts of Island County, making a radio upgrade more than a technical fix. For residents in places such as Oak Harbor, Coupeville and the stretches of Whidbey that sit far from the main hubs, a stronger land mobile radio system could mean clearer calls, faster coordination and fewer gaps when seconds matter.

The power-resiliency request is just as practical. Backup generators at county offices, the jail and the law-and-justice building would help keep operations running through outages that can shut down records systems, delay law enforcement functions and complicate emergency response. In an island county, where one failure can ripple across multiple agencies, that kind of redundancy can matter as much as any new facility.

The Island County projects also sit against a local budget squeeze. County commissioners were considering a public safety sales tax in 2025 to help balance the 2026 budget as public defense costs and sheriff-related expenses climbed. That proposal could generate about $1.9 million a year if adopted, underscoring how tightly Island County is trying to patch its public-safety funding. Larsen said the federal money would create local jobs and improve infrastructure, public safety and education in Northwest Washington, but for Island County the more immediate question is whether two badly needed systems, radios and backup power, can be strengthened before the next storm or outage tests them.