GAINESVILLE—Hall County Commissioners are considering the approval of two projects totaling slightly more than $300,000 to upgrade the county's E-911 Center.
Chuck Pinney, Senior Buyer for Hall County, said the money is coming from SPLOST VII for 15 new work stations and a new, raised floor.
The work station contract of $259,918 was awarded to Watson Furniture Group in Poulsbo, Washington; the floor coontract of $41,020 was awarded to Bergivik North America, Inc. of Salsbury, Maryland.
"I received multiple phone calls about the job," said Pinney, adding that the two out-of-state companies were the only ones to return bids. 17 bids were solicited for the equipment and 16 were solicited for the new floor.
The work stations allow 911 operators to move their desks up and down (to stand) in order to stay alert, since operators can be on the job for 12 hours at a time.
"It isn't like you can just go out to a furniture store and buy this," said Marty Nix, Assistant County Administrator.
Crews will remove 12 of the work stations and replace them with 15, and the 911 operations will move into the Emergency Operations Center during construction, allowing crews to complete the operations more quickly, without having to do it in segments.
The old equipment will be cleaned up and sold as a way to recoup some of the costs.
"(Watson) is going to recondition portions of it ... Originally it was going to be (that) we would tear it all out and just throw it away, put it in a land fill, but that's waste," said Pinney.
The motion will face final approval at the council's voting session Tuesday morning at 9:00.
OTHER NOTES:
- Commissioners will vote Tuesday on the inter-governmental agreements for the November election with the four local municipalities (Flowery Branch, Oakwood, Clermont and Lula) that are also holding elections this year.
- The commission will also consider $10,700 in Georgia Emergency Management Agency grants for the Hall County Sheriff's Office.
