911 tax increase discussed

The possibility of raising 911 tariffs on residential and business telephone bills was discussed during the Clarke County 911 Board meeting Monday.

Currently residents are paying 75 cents a month and businesses are paying $1.88 a month to help fund 911. However, the fees do not cover all of the cost for operating the system.

“I recommend we see how much money this would generate. I would also like to look at what other counties are charging. I want to look at what it costs us (the 911 system) to operate. I would like to see the department operate on its own, because right now we subsidize it a good bit,” said chairman Rhondel Rhone.

GIS update

911 Director Becky Neugent gave board members an update on the Geographical Information System mapping project.

All roads in the county have been mapped.

GPS points for all the structures in the five municipalities have been collected. Structures include houses, businesses, fire hydrants, water towers, overhead power lines or anything that could be used as a reference point.

The GIS crew is working to collect points in rural areas of the county now.

In addition to locating a 911 caller from either a wireless phone or landline, the system can verify sex offender boundaries, give exact longitude/latitude to medical helicopters to land near scene of an accident, give boundaries for hazardous material spills and track a moving vehicle carrying a 911 caller.

Other business

The new part-time employee in the department is Veronica Moore.

A new CAD system to run the GIS map, when it is completed, is being looked at.

Neugent reported all equipment at the center is running fine.

Clarke County answered 1,088 911 calls. They responded to 345 calls for service, ran 190 drivers license numbers and 189 tag numbers.

The Jackson Police Department answered 150 911 calls.

The Thomasville Police Department answered 223 911 calls.