The Middle Flint Regional 911 Center, serving seven counties, is expected to begin dispatching calls in about a month. The center will serve Dooly, Macon, Taylor, Schley, Webster, Marion and Sumter counties. Though several 911 systems in the state serve two counties - and one three-county system is in the works - nothing else even comes close to the Middle Flint center.
"It's really going to be something that is different than anything being done in state of Georgia," said Elaine Sexton, the statewide 911 director for the Georgia Emergency Management Agency. "When you look at the fact that they are bringing together that many different agencies, that's where a very unique operation is coming in."
The center will dispatch about 30 emergency agencies, plus 40 volunteer fire departments, said Mike Yates, who left his job as police chief of Americus to be the director of the center. Though dispatching that many agencies from one location might seem like a logistical nightmare, Yates is confident it will work.
"I think it's going to be pretty successful," Yates said, standing among the state-of-art dispatching consoles at the center. "The challenge is to get all these agencies on the same sheet of music."
Any initial skepticism about the project has subsided for the most part, Yates said. He believes most emergency responders in the region see the benefits and are looking forward to the new service.
The center will incorporate Global Positioning System technology in which the GPS coordinates of each address will be logged into a computer. That way when a call comes into the center, the exact location will automatically pop up on a map. Some counties are photographing homes and other locations, so that when a call comes in a photo will pop up, giving dispatchers even better information.
Along with the map location, the operator will get an automatic readout listing all the emergency agencies responsible for that address.
The bottom line, Yates said, is that a region that includes some of the smallest and poorest counties in the state will have an emergency dispatching system on par or better than dispatching for Atlanta or anywhere else.
"If you pick up a phone, dial 911 and then pass out before you say a word, we will be able to find you," Yates said.
The center will employ about 30 people, with up to seven dispatchers working at a time. Most of the dispatchers have already been hired and are in training.
Yates expects two dispatchers will be assigned specifically to Sumter County, the most populous county in the region by far. But should severe weather or some other major event generate a flood of calls from a particular county, any dispatcher could handle calls from any county. Figuring out the best way to field the calls will be a work in progress.
"It's going to take some experimentation," Yates said.
Rather than have all the counties come online at once, Yates is aiming for a gradual buildup. Sumter is scheduled to be the first online, which is expected to happen in early April. Other counties are expected to join in the following weeks, and Yates hopes to have all counties online by midsummer.
One of the stickiest details to work out was the location of the center. Ellaville was recommended by an independent consultant because it is the highest point in the region and is centrally located. Yates said the radio tower has been tested, and reception reaches throughout the seven counties.
Taylor County Sheriff Jeff Watson said he has some concerns about how the operation will work but said he believes it will ultimately be good for the county. The center not only will not only aid in locating addresses, he said, but it also will give quicker results in license tag and warrant checks.
"It's a change," Watson said. "It's going to have some kinks to work out, but I'm going to do whatever it takes to make it work."
The center is operated by an authority made up of representatives from each county in the region. Each county charges telephone customers a $1.50 per month 911 fee, and all that money goes to the authority. But the fee isn't enough to cover the operating costs, and each county will contribute additional money based on population. Schley County, for instance, has a population of 4,000 and will contribute $16,000 for the first year of operation.
Schley County Manager Doug Redmond, a member of the 911 Authority, said the center is the result of years of effort, particularly by the Middle Flint Regional Development Center. The RDC had the original idea for a regional center, he said, and helped get a key $700,000 OneGeorgia grant to build the center. Without the grant, Redmond said, the center most likely would never have been built.
Also, he said, it took quite a lot of give-and-take to get so many counties and so many different agencies on board.
"There was a large spirit of cooperation among the counties, and some realized they may have to do things differently," he said.
Sexton said that for most small rural counties, joining a regional system is about the only way to afford 911 service. Yet emergency personnel are often reluctant, because many don't like the idea of dealing with dispatchers in another county.
That's why, Sexton said, it's admirable that seven counties managed to find a way to come together.
"It takes at tremendous amount of cooperation," she said. "You have to be willing to give and take and compromise. I think they recognized the fact that they have been trying to do 911 for a number of years, and public safety and elected officials realized the only way they were able to do 911 was through a regional approach."
