The Oglethorpe County Board of Commissioners unanimously voted to add $110,000 to the Enhanced 911 budget at its Monday meeting.
The money will be used to hire two new positions, starting in January, as mandated by state legislation.
Senate Bill 505 requires every emergency dispatcher to go through annual CPR training. This bill was approved by Gov. Brian Kemp in May 2022 after Atlanta News First reported that 80 Georgia 911 centers were not able to give CPR instructions.
Oglethorpe County E-911 Director Angela Jackson said “with the two new positions, it will help if we do have a CPR call, and one dispatcher is not taking on everything else. It can get very busy at times.”
Jackson said she’ll “start looking to hire in December.”
District 5 Commissioner Tracy Norman said the “unfunded mandate” was compulsory and not something the local department requested.
To help obtain the $110,000, Norman said he was planning “on talking to Sen. (Lee) Anderson about changing the 911 fee on phone bills to see if we can get some extra funding on this.”
Jackson said the county receives $320,000 in 911 fees through wireless carriers each year.
“Usually, the 911 fees are three months late coming in,” she said. “We have to budget overtime, and that can be hard to do. We had one (employee) out on maternity leave for three months this year. We have to pay overtime for those months. We also have variable fees that might come up, utilities, phone and such since prices have gone up.
“The 911 fees are also variable,” she added. “We may get a certain amount this month and get more or less the next month. For all those reasons, we usually will do an amendment in or around October to cover the account.”
This $110,000 will be in addition to the $464,000 already allotted to the department in the approved 2024 budget.
In other news, the commissioners:
- Unanimously approved rezoning for Justin Woodall’s property as proposed by Kevin Ashe at 2238 Beaverdam Road from agricultural residential to single-family residential in order to subdivide.
- Approved rezoning for E.L. Sanders Jr. estate at 861 Stephens Salem Road from general agriculture to agricultural residential in order to subdivide. The vote was approved 4-0. Howard Sanders abstained due to a family conflict of interest.
- Unanimously approved a variance to the side yard building setback for Tax Parcel 112 132 in order to subdivide for Broughton Paul.
- Proclaimed Oct. 1-7 as Mental Health Awareness Week.
- Publicly supported urging the governor and General Assembly to reform and improve mental health services. David Kidd, the Oglethorpe County representative on Advantage Behavioral Health System’s Community Service Board, said this support would help the group receive state funding for mental health.
- Approved a motion to limit the Oglethorpe County landfill usage to residents and trash produced in the county.
- Approved a resolution to support the city of Maxeys’ search for grants that will support its application for a recreational trails program in order to complete work on the Firefly Trail. The board is not offering funds, only support.
- Heard from Dink NeSmith, who proposed a $1,000 donation from The Oglethorpe Echo in lieu of fixing the vandalism on Howard’s Bridge, with $500 as a reward for apprehension, arrest and conviction of the vandal(s), and $500 to be used to install cameras.