When Macon and Bibb County’s emergency radio system went down Friday, leaving area first-responders without communications for a couple of hours, officials said it underscored the need for a new radio system.
At Public Safety Memorial Park on Tuesday, city and county officials united in an effort to persuade voters to approve a special purpose local option sales tax on the Nov. 8 ballot because of the public safety items listed on the referendum.
Police Chief Mike Burns, Sheriff Jerry Modena and Fire Chief Marvin Riggins all spoke of the new, 800-MHz radio system that would replace the city and county’s current system, which would cost $8 million to replace.
The current system, which was purchased after the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, has had several outages, and city workers can no longer get parts to fix it, Burns said.
“All of our dispatchers were using cell phones,” Burns said of Friday’s incident. “The IT department hopped on it, but they can no longer get parts for it. We don’t know how much longer it will hold up. ... My main fear is that we will have an officer (on a call), and he’ll have no way to call for help. I don’t want any of my officers to get hurt because we can’t communicate with them.”
Additionally, Riggins noted to those in attendance the need for three new fire stations -- two in the county and one in the city -- that would focus on rapidly growing areas and possibly help the city and county’s insurance rates. Those would cost a total of $12 million.
Overall, public safety items in the SPLOST total a little more than $45 million -- 23.5 percent of the $190 million officials hope the SPLOST will raise during the next six years.
Burns said other items that would be paid for if the SPLOST passes would include new patrol cars, computers and laptops for the cars, in-car cameras and non-lethal enforcement devices for the police and sheriff’s office.
County Commission Chairman Sam Hart said the SPLOST is a better way to pay for the public safety needs than if it fails and the money has to come from bonds and property taxes.
A total of $44.6 million in the SPLOST is being used to pay down debt retirement in the city and county, which would lead to savings over time, Hart said.
He said he thinks the public safety items and the $6 million earmarked for land acquisition near Robins Air Force Base are the two most important elements of the SPLOST.
“The debt retirement is important as well,” Hart said. “There’s a significant amount of money to service the debt we have.”
Hart said that using SPLOST money to pay for things such as the new firehouses and the radio system is preferable than using bonds or property taxes to pay for them, thus incurring more debt for the city and county.
“It makes sense,” he said. “We get anywhere from 50 to 70 percent (of SPLOST money) from outside of the county. It’s the best way to do capital improvements. We don’t have to go into additional debt that we would have to pass on to the community.”
Warren Selby, director of Macon Regional CrimeStoppers, said an oversight committee would monitor how the money is spent. He said all of the public safety items in the SPLOST are essential.
“We have to provide for our first-responders’ needs,” he said.
To contact writer Phillip Ramati, call 744-4334.
