COVINGTON, Ga. — Covington City Council members that heard static and other interference on the phone lines is getting so bad for 911 operators that an entire new phone system is needed.

Council members Monday, Oct. 17, approved using 911 fees to pay $356,610 for Alabama-based Ryan Public Safety Solutions to provide a fix for a 911 system beset by continuous static and noise at times — which adds to already stressful situations for operators, said Trudy Henry, director of the Covington-Newton County 911 Communications Center.

The department bought its current system in 2010 and upgraded its hardware when it moved to its current Alcovy Road location in 2019, Henry said.

“Since we’ve moved to the new center, we’ve had a lot of ... issues — a lot of static, a lot of interference on the lines that the dispatchers deal with daily,” she said.

“We’re functioning fully, we’re not having any (issues) other than the static and the interference on the lines — today,” she said. 

“It needs to be replaced now before (the 2023 budget is approved),” Henry said. “The equipment is quickly dying.”

Henry said department officials in August discovered the current Solacom phone system needed to be replaced. Operations Manger Anessa Westmoreland has been checking with vendors to see what is available, Henry said.

“We were hoping to do it at budget time but we have had several problems,” she said.

Technicians have rebooted the SBC system and it “seems to fix the issue for a short time but the static seems to come back.”

“Over the past couple of years it’s just gotten worse,” Henry said. 

The system also malfunctioned to the point that Newton County 911 calls recently were routed to the Rockdale County system.

“No calls were missed. Everything was handled. But at the (Newton County 911) center we were down for about an hour.”

The money will come from the emergency fund that includes 10% of 911 fee collections that residents pay, she said.

She said she asked Motorola Solutions officials about buying the same system directly from the company but found the quote would be higher and installation take longer to complete.

“I’ve tried to get other quotes but we’re just in a situation to where things .. I’m just worried about the citizens and I’m also worried about the dispatchers,” she said.

“It is hard to have a stressful job and the phone issues cause just that much more stress as they’re taking these calls, or not taking these calls and trying to take these calls from Rockdale. I had dispatchers go to Rockdale yesterday to help answer calls.”

She said she received a $356,610 quote from Alabama-based Ryan Public Safety Solutions for installation, training and a year of maintenance for a Vesta 911 system manufactured by Motorola Solutions.

Delivery of the “all-new equipment, all-new software” possibly could be completed by the end of this month, followed by two weeks of setup before it is functional, Henry said.

“Motorola told me four months,” she said.

The Vesta system offers such features as “a visual gateway to data, beyond location, in real time from one map” that “simplifies the way data is collected and delivered to the telecommunicator” and enables telecommunicators “to share more details with first responders before they’re on-scene,” according to its website.