COLDWATER, MI (WTVB) - Union City village president Bill Avery pleaded with Branch County Commissioners Tuesday to have the Commission and officials in other communities in the county to work together to do whatever is necessary to keep the county a safe place to live.

Avery expressed his views as the Branch County Sheriff’s Department is beginning 2013 with only a bare-bones road patrol after budget cuts brought the layoff of nearly a dozen deputies. Avery knows somewhat first hand what the Board is experiencing. He’s a former County Commissioner and in November, a village tax levy proposal to help pay for a police officer went down to defeat. It lost by just two votes after a recount while a county-wide millage increase on the ballot this fall to fund the road patrol was sounded rejected.