County officials working to correct communication woes

Grady County public safety personnel are continuing to have issues with the new communication system installed as part of the federally mandated narrow banding project, but County Commissioner T.D. David said Tuesday night work is ongoing to address the problems.
According to David, in some areas of the county public safety personnel do not have radio contact with dispatchers or fellow workers. There are also issues with frequency overlap where agencies in Tifton and even some in Alabama are “stepping on our conversations,” David said.
“We have a good team working on this and we are trying to quantify just what the problems are,” David said.
Grady County Commission Chairman LaFaye Copeland said she was unaware problems with the new system still existed. “I thought all of this had been resolved,” she said.
Commissioner David said that some of the problems public safety personnel are experiencing cannot be corrected.
“There will always be some minor dead spots in the county. There’s nothing we can do about that,” David said.
According to Commissioner David, Capt. Steve Clark of the Grady County Sheriff’s Office, County Fire Chief Richard Phillips and Grady Emergency Management Agency Executive Director Jim Ellis are part of the team working on addressing the problems with the new system.
Motorola officials are also working with the county and Decatur-Grady E911 to resolve the issues with the communication system.
“We are staying with it and you need to know we are,” Commissioner David said.