Nik Rajkovic / news@whmi.com

Green Oak Townhip trustees on Wednesday approved nearly $5,800 to boost VHF radio/pager coverage inside Fire Station 83.

Chief Kevin Gentry told the board that station has been a 'dead zone' for years, forcing members to have a radio on, even when in the restroom, because their pagers won't go off.

"It has to do with the shape of the roof construction, where it sits geographically compared to the tower, a lot of different things," he said.

"After many tries with antennas and homemade things, we called the professionals. We test drove a amplifier system. They put it in temporarily. Turned it on and it worked great."

Digicom Global of Troy, plans to install two internal antennas and one on the roof of the building.

Chief Gentry also informed trustees that Engine 81 recently blew a turbo, which is about $10,000 to rebuild. However, he said the truck should be back in service in about a week.