Three down and one to go, but that one – the City of Perry – is proving to be a hard sale. With good cause, its representatives believe and can justify, it should be added.
The City of Warner Robins, City of Centerville and the county – each entity’s representative – gave their nod of approval Thursday during a special called Vision 2020 meeting to go forward with a more in-depth study (more in- depth to what Houston County Emergency Management Direction Jimmy Williams has already done, which to his credit, is pretty in-depth in itself) to bring one emergency notification system to the whole of Houston County. Warner Robins, via Councilman John Williams – Mayor Donald Walker has been ill and was not present – added the caveat: “we’re only interested in the siren system. Not the phone notification.”
The siren system, in case you haven’t already read, is the Whelen WPS2906, which has six different warning tones and includes a public address system. The proposal is to buy 56 of them, which in turn would cover 95 percent of Houston County. The cost is listed as $1,510,000 with an additional $290,000 for a MOSCAD system.
The MOSCAD system, explained Jimmy Williams, is “something that would go on our 800 trunking system which would allow these sirens to receive the signals these set off.”
The phone system John Williams referred to was billed as a supplement. It is pretty much what it sounds like – although it has certain advantages in its own right – you receive a call on your home and/or work and/or cell phone telling you what the emergency is. (The Board of Education currently uses this system). The cost for it would be approximately $256,600 each year. (Plus somebody would have to be hired to plug in all those phone numbers.) (Warner Robins council members debated the pros and cons of both during their past council meeting.)
So why isn’t Perry on board with the more in-depth study (requests for proposals, et cetera) ... yet. Yet, because Sanders, toward the close of the meeting, asked Perry City Manager Lee Gilmour, who was representing Perry with Mayor Jim Worrall not there, if he would set up a special called meeting (and Gilmour agreed to try; maybe as early as Monday – the day Sanders lobbied for) to discuss it more at length.
Well for starters Perry already has a siren system – four sirens – in place. It was asked by Centerville Mayor Bubba Edwards if their system covered all those areas that have been annexed into the city limits since the system was first put into place and the answer was “no.”
But, responded Perry Police Chief George Potter, “we can expand our system a lot cheaper than you’re asking us to come up with right now.” Potter was referring to the $156,000 that is listed as Perry’s fair share of the cost to have the system installed. That figure by the way, Sanders said, could go up or down based on the results of the study. It would assuredly go down – Perry would get a credit, he said – if Perry’s current system is compatible with the new system.
But they won’t know until they do the study, he added, and therein lies another sticking point – maybe “the” sticking point.
Perry is not sure it wants to help pay for a study when in the end it may not even be a player in the new system. In other words, if it would be more cost effective for it to stay the course it is currently on.
“If the resolution or general intention is for the jurisdictions to go forward and come back with a proposal,” Gilmour said. “I think that would probably be fine (with Perry City Council members).
“(But) if it’s about going ahead on principle and automatically sharing in the cost of the system without any additional details (however), I think that might be a problem for them.”
Explained Sanders, the latter to a certain extent is exactly what it is. He said they weren’t asking for the $156,000 up front, just for Perry to own up to what figured out to be its share of the cost of the study. And, to commit now that it would continue on with the other three should it be decided to go forward following the results of the study. (And by the way, he said this could not be a SPLOST project. It will have to be paid for some other way. He said it was a good candidate for a SPLOST but the next one wasn’t until 2012.) “Going forward with a study implies some commitment of funds in and of itself,” said Sanders. “From a reality point of view, we have to make a commitment and it involves some funds.
“So we need them to step up to the table and either say ‘yeah we’re going to be a player’ or ‘no we’re not.’ And not try to play it safe fund wise.” Added Gilmour: “You’re coming in and asking the municipalities and the county to buy into a program that has an approximate cost,” he said. “Then the study is done but you’re already in.”
“That’s right,” Sanders said. “In this world ... we live in a world of uncertainty and have to make decisions on conditions of uncertainty. People who wait until every penny is nailed down oftentimes are indecisive.
“Whether it’s $180(,000) or $160(,000) or $200(,000). In the long run (the benefits of the system itself) that’s not really a big deal. It is really not a big deal. That’s why it’s an approval by principle.”
