County, Winder to merge 911 operations; ambulance slated for city

Posted by

in County Government Archives, Top Stories & Breaking News

Wednesday, November 30. 2011

Comments (27)

Barrow County and Winder officials are moving forward with plans not only to relocate a county ambulance inside the city during the day, but also to consolidate emergency 911 operations.

The issues were discussed at a Nov. 22 meeting requested by City Councilman Sonny Morris, who as chairman of the council’s fire and police committees presided over the meeting.

City administrator Don Toms said he and other officials now are trying to locate a place to park the ambulance downtown – initially outside if temperatures don’t dip too low between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. each day, and then in a more permanent location such as a garage, where the vehicle can be safely stationed to keep internal temperatures within a range that would not affect medical supplies.

For the 911 dispatch services, officials including county commission chairman Danny Yearwood and mayor-elect David Maynard also agreed to finalize an agreement for consolidating the city’s and county’s E-911 communication services.

The agreement would have to be approved by both the Barrow County Board of Commissioners and the Winder City Council but the consensus at the meeting was that the county would cover the costs of the computer hardware and software to combine the systems, and the city would cover for a few years the cost of the salaries and benefits of the four city dispatchers who would become county employees and be moved to the 911 center off Pleasant Hill Church Road.

For the full story, see the Nov. 30 issue of the Barrow Journal.

Trackbacks

Trackback specific URI for this entry

No Trackbacks

Comments

Display comments as (Linear | Threaded)

#1 Anonymous on 11/30/11 at 01:19 PM [Reply]

1st blunder for the new Mayor. I like consolidation of services if it helps citizens, but this is one that doesnt, Poor quality at BC 911.

#2 are you kidding on 11/30/11 at 04:11 PM [Reply]

Yet faster response times and quicker communication between agencies for things like suspect/vehicle lookouts, agency assist communication etc. in the long run, its better for the citizens. The way the current set up is,if you live just outside the city limits of Winder and the call goes to 911, they have to turn around and call Winder who then in turn dispatches an officer. That minute and a half between calls could turn out to be the longest minute and a half of your life. It has proven. positive results in other counties that have merged.

#3 county medic on 11/30/11 at 05:04 PM [Reply]

So you are telling me that not only are you going to pull me from my station for 12 hours to cover the city even though the county residents are paying my salary. But then Me, my partner and my truck are not good enough to post in Winder's fire station ?.. we are going to have to sit outside in a parking lot ?.. Wow !! How bout this Winder City... get your own ambulance, staff it with your own firefighters who seem to think they are too good to do EMS and put it in your own precious station. !!

#3.1 right on! on 11/30/11 at 05:21 PM [Reply]

correct i agree

#3.2 Anonymous on 12/01/11 at 05:04 AM [Reply]

Quit crying. Where does it say that YOU will be outside. It says the ambulance will be. Dont worry, you will be inside watching your TV and sleeping until you get a call. What is the difference with what you have now other than the ambulance is outside. The Winder Stations are all full right now with other equipment that is just as important.

#3.2.1 climatw control on 12/01/11 at 07:54 AM [Reply]

they have things called heated or cooled by the units battery that can keep contents at set point they ae insulated to maintain temp, bery affordable

#3.2.2 county medic on 12/01/11 at 10:50 AM [Reply]

Hey anonymous, If you think we sit around and sleep all day then I invite you to come ride with me for those 24 hours. put you body where your mouth is !. and if for some reason I do happen to catch a nap in a chair during the day then that helps me refresh my mind because I will probably be up all night long taking care of someone like you. Come ride and we will see how you handle sitting in a vehicle in a parking lot for 12 hours. I just dont think its right for the county residents, who pay for us, to have to wait or suffer because Winder city won't (cause they could) get their own EMS.

#3.3 Jack Legg on 12/01/11 at 09:28 AM [Reply]

The med unit definetly should be housed in the cities fire station.they can park one of their old trucks outside for 12 hours.
I want to say one thing though to the various fools posting on here about firemen sitting around watching tv and sleeping all day.You dont know what you are talking about and I wont sit still to listen to you make false accusations and tell ouitright lies against these people who are out there laying it all on the line for your dumb ass.You can go to hell.

#4 Ha Ha on 11/30/11 at 05:54 PM [Reply]

If Winder PD could get dedicated employees to come to work at night in Dispatch, they wouldn't have to use the 911 center. If the WPD Dispatchers would keep out of the city payroll, you'd have people their to work also.

#5 too on 11/30/11 at 06:22 PM [Reply]

many sick and paid time off!!!

#6 oh no not again on 11/30/11 at 06:22 PM [Reply]

I agree with county medic, if Winder wants a med unit then house it. All kinds of questions such as, we are going into the winter months and they are going to house us "initially outside if temperatures don’t dip too low between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. each day, and then in a more permanent location such as a garage, where the vehicle can be safely stationed to keep internal temperatures within a range that would not affect medical supplies"
Who is going to determine if the temps are too low? Is a garage a permanent location? So why dont they find this "garage" before they move the ambulance? What if the ambulance that is stationed in Winder is on a call and it takes too long for another ambulance to come to the city, will they move all the ambulances to Winder? What about the response time to the county taxpayers who need them? If it is delayed will they move an ambulance close to their home?

#7 Old Detention Center on 11/30/11 at 06:52 PM [Reply]

What the hell is wrong with parking it at the old detention center downtown. It has an enclosed parking area where the deputies use to bring in prisioners. Are they just going to let it sit there and be useless when it can be used for something?

You wouldn't have to heat and cool the entire facility. Hell, install a separate HVAC system for a smaller area for the EMT/Paramedics living area.

It is close to the underpass to get to the other side of town if a train is blocking the tracks. This probably makes too much sense so I wouldn't expect them to consider it.

#8 J.B. Moore on 12/01/11 at 07:23 AM [Reply]

I hear Clark Howards rip off alert all over this one for county residents. The red flag should be the county footing the bill for the software. That will be a substantial part of the cost, then we are hiring the city dispatchers! More county employees to pay. Unless the the city is willing to pay in for the long haul screw this! Why does the commission not ask the sheriff to reconfigure his deputies zones, pretend the city does not exist and only consider populous for the beats, and dissolve the city public safety services and give first priority to city officers for vacancies with the sheriff's office? You can argue, but when you consider the cost of software and these employees you will agree with my view. Let's face it the Sheriff has the constitutional obligation to already provide these services as far as policing, jail, civil, etc. The only reason cities have PD's is for the power trip of having a PD. It may be in charters etc... But please give me a reason other than mine where you pay for a service you otherwise get for free, that the constitution requires a High Sheriff to provide for you that you want to pay for. I have been in this to long and seen the politics of PD's with cities for too long. Let's hold these scamsters accountable!

#8.1 Anonymous on 12/01/11 at 04:17 PM [Reply]

J.B., quit wasting our time with your foolish comments. Hell will freeze over before Winder ever gives up it's PD or FD. It will never happen.

#9 J.B. Moore on 12/02/11 at 02:11 AM [Reply]

If we elect commissioners who act like they have a pair, and quit comping the city it can happen. If the city wants it then let them pay for it!!!!

#9.1 Robert Lanham on 12/02/11 at 02:48 AM [Reply]

FYI, the city does pay for its own fire and police. And as a resident of Winder, I also pay county taxes. Those taxes pay for ambulance services, as well as other services including 911. Yes, I know we don't pay quite as much as those people living in the unincorporated parts of Barrow County, but that is because we pay our own way for fire and police protection. And I hope it stays that way - we pay a lot less for homeowner's insurance because the city fire department has a much better rating than the county. And by teh way, JB, the county doesn't have the authority to dissolve the city's public safety departments. If you don't believe me, read the state constitution.

#9.2 Anonymous on 12/02/11 at 06:57 AM [Reply]

I agree. I love the Sheriff and his staff but they take a lot longer responding to calls than the City Police do. Its not a matter of how good they are (they are all very good), it matters as to how close they are to me when I call for help. JB Im sorry you dont like the cities, but for me in my older years, this is a perfect fit. I moved from a county with no City Police to Winder and love the protection I have.

#10 J.B. Moore on 12/02/11 at 11:10 AM [Reply]

I have nothing against city police departments, I just believe that if you want them pay for them, and everything needed to pay for them along with city fire departments. The issue started out of some county residents losing an ambulance to the city. What about the response time here. The thing I don't like is redundancy. An officer is an officer whether he is wearing brown or blue. The point being that I was trying to make above is why not use what we have, don't buy any software and assign deputies to the city and problem solved as well as with county f.d. Zones. For all the people who are unfamiliar with rank structure let me clarify, this is not to scale only a demonstration. Let's say you assign three deputies to the city, they can answer to the current shift supervisor that's already on the road working that shift, they can be supervised by a S.O. Sgt, then above him the Lt. And on up the chain. When they need investigators they call the S.O. CID to respond and do the things they do, etc. Well see you already have that in place, but now with the city of winder welfare program were paying for we have "for demonstration only" the P.D. Officers working they have a sergeant then they have a Lt. And on up then they got investigators and they got a CID sgt, then a Lt. Etc. Do you see .were the redundancy comes in? That is my issue. If the sheriff has issues with response times that can be corrected with proper allocation of manpower and zones. Thank the lord I have never had to request a Deputy out to my home, but I have not heard a lot of complaints in regards to response times. And to the ones who will want to argue rank and proper amount of city officers notice the disclaimer "for demonstration only".

#10.1 Anonymous on 12/02/11 at 10:20 PM [Reply]

Mr. Moore...I like most of your idea but there is one problem with it. The deputies cannot enfoce City Ordinannces. The ones I am talking about are the ones that deal with Alcohol licenses, business license and such. That does not count the ones that the police use every day such as Disorderly Conduct and the such for minor nit picky stuff. Do you think the City should hire Marshalls to do that job? If they did, we would again have duplicate services.

#11 J.B. Moore on 12/02/11 at 11:17 AM [Reply]

Mr. Lan ham did you not read were I acknowledged city charters etc and realize the county can't dissolve them, perhaps I should have stated it better. However you comments lose all credibility when you said the city pays its own way, perhaps you should read the article prior to commenting.

#12 Anonymous on 12/02/11 at 01:56 PM [Reply]

J.B. you wasting your time writing and our time reading. No commissioner, councilman or mayor will ever be elected if they even mention the word consolidation. Look at what happened to Rodger Wehunt when he ran for mayor. It WILL never happen!

#13 Why would on 12/02/11 at 09:21 PM [Reply]

As a city of Winder resident, I enjoy the lower ISO rating the city fd has. If consolidation ever occurs the citizens of Winder would have to pay higher fire tax due to the counties current ISO rating of 5/9. For me consolidation is out of the question in my book. Also, binging an ambulance to the city will not solve the problem at hand. Once that ambulance runs one call in the city it could be gone for 10 mins to possibly hours with transport to the hospital. Then you are back to where you were before. I don't think it will solve the problem.

#13.1 Anonymous on 12/02/11 at 11:04 PM [Reply]

Your correct about the ambulance, it want solve anything. As far as the fire service no one has said the county will take over.

#13.1.1 Anonymous on 12/03/11 at 12:20 AM [Reply]

Why would Winder Fire Dept ever want Barrow Co Fire to take over? That would be like turning a bull loose in a china shop.

#13.1.1.1 Anonymous on 12/03/11 at 07:45 AM [Reply]

Do you not watch Myth Busters they tested the bull in a China shop myth and found that when they put several bulls in the shop nothing was broken. So although I don't think that anyone needs to take over anything, by your saying nothing bad would happen.

#14 J.B. Moore on 12/04/11 at 08:45 AM [Reply]

Consolidation is already happening, and now you see Mayor Thompson giving a raise to the dispatchers that we have to take on. My whole issue is cost savings. There is no bigger supporter of public safety, but if we can save money and all these people on here talking about how conservative they are, but they continuously want the county and cities to waste their money. Maybe we do deserve Yearwood, let's just leave him in and while were at it recall Maynard and leave in the Chipper and they can run this county square in the ground.

#15 oldtimer911'er on 12/07/11 at 05:47 PM [Reply]

when did BC911 get such a bad reputation? wpd dispatchers are paid more and yet bc911 has to transfer many calls to wpd. they only dispatch for the city and bc911 dispatchers do more work; I have concern and compassion for my fellow dispatchers but enough is enough. I am just as good as and sometimes better at what I do than wpd. if bc911 is so bad and such bad quality, why dont those of you who are talking trash apply and see if you can do better?

Add Comment

Name
Email
Homepage
In reply to
Comment: E-Mail addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for E-Mail notifications.
To leave a comment you must approve it via e-mail, which will be sent to your address after submission.

To prevent automated Bots from commentspamming, please enter the string you see in the image below in the appropriate input box. Your comment will only be submitted if the strings match. Please ensure that your browser supports and accepts cookies, or your comment cannot be verified correctly.

Enter the string from the spam-prevention image above:
Phone*

What is nine minus eight?
: Remember Information? Subscribe to this entry

County, Winder to merge 911 operations; ambulance slated for city

Barrow Journal

County, Winder to merge 911 operations; ambulance slated for city

Recent Stories

Recent Comments

This Week's Poll

Sister Sites

Archives

Community

Keyword Tags