Since upgrading equipment last month, Walker Co 911 has become unreliable. Multiple reports of people calling 911 for 20-30 minutes with no answer before looking up numbers for other emergency agencies. All dispatch for law enforcement, fire, and ambulance in Walker (incl. city agencies) is routed through 911. Major failure of public safety.
Last Thursday on the 5th an elderly gentleman had a heart attack and called Walker 911 for twenty minutes, before giving up and calling the only other emergency number he knew: GA State Patrol. GSP sent an ambulance, and the EMT’s said another half hour he would have died.
Wednesday morning at 2 AM an elderly lady fell and her sister (?) called 911 for a half hour, got no answer, and then called the Sheriff’s Office. After some explanation and discussion, the jail finally sent her an ambulance and said there was a problem with the phone lines at 911.
The first incident may have been related to the storms that came through that night. The one yesterday was definitely a system issue, some kind of upgrade or change that failed in the middle and took things down without a backup. Hopefully it won’t be repeated, regardless of reason or reasons. (911 operators aren’t at fault; You can’t answer a phone that doesn’t ring.)
No idea if they’re working on it or passing blame around from one place to another. But when somebody’s meemaw dies from an old person attack due to no answer at the 911 center, the county will get sued and be on the hook for all kinds of liability. As they should be.
TSPLOST is in trouble. State leaders from both parties are distancing themselves from it, saying they have personally voted down the tax this month even though they supported the bill when it came through the legislature in 2010.
Even some state Republican leaders who initially endorsed the plan are now calling it a tax increase, mainly because they don’t like the projects it will fund:
“The conservative GOP lawmaker [Chip Rogers] claimed many of the projects approved by roundtables of local officials after the bill passed will do nothing to relieve congestion and will burden taxpayers for years to come.
“He urged voters to reject the pre-approved project list, saying lawmakers can still come back in two years to create a better list.”
Especially relevant to us, the mayor of Dalton has come out against the tax too. If Whitfield County and Dalton vote against it, the entire region Walker County is in (including Dade, Catoosa, Whitfield, and Chattooga) will probably defeat the tax increase.
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