An agreement for Alpharetta to dispatch Milton's police and firefighters will improve response times to emergency in "problem areas" in both cities, Alpharetta Public Safety Director Gary George told City Council Monday night.
Legislation creating the City of Milton required Fulton County to provide Milton's dispatching needs for up to two years. In exchange, Fulton has kept the $1.50 per cellphone and house phone paid by Milton's residents to offset those costs. The two years ends Dec. 31st. Making the agreement has been a top priority, as ending the arrangement with Fulton County requires 90 days' notice. For a proposed change starting Oct. 1st, the notice must be made by Aug. 1st.
The cities have an automatic mutual aid agreement between fire departments. Milton can respond to North Park, Kings Ridge Christian School and Crabapple faster than Alpharetta.
The trade off comes in the Bethany and Mayfield areas of Milton. Response time is the number one priority.
Both cities have ladder trucks than can be positioned to cover the largest area for both cities. Since Milton parks its ladder truck at its city hall off Deerfield Parkway, Alpharetta could move its ladder truck to its station 3, closer to North Point Mall, the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre and those areas of Alpharetta.
Just two weeks earlier, the council approved an agreement that gives Alpharetta control of dispatching Rural Metro's six ambulances in North Fulton. Monitors in the new Command & Control center will show the location of every Alpharetta and Milton police and fire vehicle, plus all of Rural Metro's ambulances. GPS transponders will be installed in all emergency vehicles. The police & firefighter dispatch agreement just makes sense, and would benefit all of the area's citizens.
Labels: 911, Alpharetta, Community Emergency Response Team, dispatch, firefighter, Milton, police
