The Newton County Board of Supervisors further discussed the future of its emergency management department at their final meeting of the year on Thursday, Dec. 21.
At the Dec. 4 meeting, County EMA Director Brian Taylor told the board that the county was losing out om state 911 fees for cell customers because Newton County does not have a 3-digit exchange number for cell service, limiting the county’s funding for EMA services.
Taylor said that 70 percent of the county’s residences do not have landlines and use only mobile phones. Mobile numbers are charged by the $1 per line per month for state 91 fee, or it’s prepaid when purchasing minutes.
Taylor gave the quotes for if the county decides to outsource its 911 dispatch service to the EMA departments of surrounding counties or to upgrade is existing equipment.
Taylor presented quotes from telecommunication companies, Motorola, Jackson Communications and ComSouth to upgrade the 911 office equipment, including the radios, antennas and mapping system.
ComSouth’s five-year contract with maintenance support would be $644,477.08 and a 10-year contract with maintenance support would be $787,527.08.
Motorola and Jackson Communications partnership would be $644,697.90 for a five-year contract and 10-year contract would be $847,975.76.
Taylor said if the county went with an upgrade that he recommended signing a 5-year maintenance contract instead of a 10-year because some of the equipment may become outdated after five years.
Taylor also presented the board with bids from Neshoba and Lauderdale counties to take over the 911 dispatch.
Neshoba County bid would include a $38,500 startup fee and the annual costs would be $270,00 per year.
Lauderdale County bid’s set the price for providing services at $225,000 per year, which included the start up fee.
The supervisors voted to take all bids under advisement and would schedule a work session before the next meeting.
County Fire Coordinator Joey Hand discussed with the board proposals for purchasing repeaters that would be installed on water tank towers and buying new radios for all county first responders to use. First responders use repeaters to amplify digital or analog signals in order to strengthen them for retransmission.
In other business, county veterans service officer Johnny Reeves updated the board on his first year in the position. Reeves said that he had handled 82 veterans claims this year. Reeves also informed the board about a grant that the Meridian chapter of Habitat for Humanity had received to help area veterans improve their homes including building wheelchair ramps. Reeves said that as of now only two veterans in Newton County had signed up for the assistance and that he wanted to notify other veterans of the available help.
Veterans who are interested in the assistance can contact Reeves at 601-635-2178 Monday through Wednesday.
