With a new E-911 radio system funded by SPLOST and the American Rescue Plan coming to Habersham County, the county’s municipalities are working to adjust their budgets and make decisions on how they will support new radios compatible with the new system for their first responders and public safety officials.
City managers, police and fire officials met with the county Tuesday to discuss costs and fees, and Habersham County Finance Director Tim Sims says that there was at least one representative from nearly every city at the meeting.
Radios and maintenance
While the county will provide radios to county first responders, such as Habersham County Emergency Services, municipalities will be responsible for providing radios to their own first responders, and the same goes for the board of education.
Aside from the costs of the actual radios, the radio system has a 15-year maintenance fee plan of $733 per radio, per year for the next 15 years.
The fee will remain unchanged over the next 15 years, and is not contingent upon the model or type of radio. The maintenance fee serves as an insurance policy; if a radio breaks due to the radio being dropped or otherwise damaged, which isn’t uncommon in the public safety field, or if the radio has any sort of issue, the radio will be replaced.
There are several types of radios municipalities, the BOE and county will invest in, some of which include vehicle, desktop, pager, smartphone, headset and portable radios. Each entity has the freedom to choose which radios are right for them and how many they will need.
Municipalities are still working to figure out the exact total of radios they will purchase, as well as how they will budget for maintenance fees and how they plan to purchase those radios.
While those budgetary discussions and other plans still need to be discussed and decided on by some of Habersham’s municipalities, cities have been instructed by the county that Memorandums of Understanding need to be signed between the individual municipalities and the county within the next six months, according to Baldwin City Clerk Emily Woodmaster.
Of the municipalities, Cornelia currently holds the largest number of radios they plan to purchase, which sits at 103 radio units. Baldwin is second, with a plan to purchase a total of 70 radios. The BOE plans for 50 radios, and there are plans for 47 in Clarkesville, 28 in Demorest, 10 in Alto, 7 in Tallulah Falls and 4 in Mt. Airy.
The county is looking to purchase a total of 422 radios for the county’s sheriff’s office, emergency services (fire, medical) and 911 dispatch.
Even with all the change happening in cities and within the county, there won’t be much change for workers at the Habersham E-911 dispatch center. However, E-911 Director Lynn Smith says that the radio system’s upgrades will better protect citizens and make dispatching more accurate.
“It will make it much better for everyone that is on the system, including dispatch as far as coverage,” Smith says. “There won’t be the dead spots, there won’t be the spots where we can’t get ahold of somebody because there’s no cell coverage there’s no anything.”
With the new system, there will be coverage of 95 percent of the county. The five percent it doesn’t cover are national forest areas, which do not have homes or businesses in them.
Smith says she’s excited for the new system— which she says is public safety-grade and an improved system overall— and the protection the added coverage will offer for citizens.
The county estimates that the new system will go live in about 18 months.
