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4A I DAWSON COUNTY NEWS I dawsonnews.com
Wednesday, June 29,2022
"'"ADawson County
Coverage Comparisons
Dawson County, GA - Potential Coverage of VHF P25 System
Digital VHF P25 Coverage »■ DAQ 3.4; Talk-In (radio to site); 95% Reliability
Dawson County, GA - Potential Coverage of 700/800 P25 System
Digital 700/800 MHt P25 Coverage >= DAQ 3.4; Talk-In (radio to site); 95% Reliability
PortaW* In-aulMios Co<«rajco
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■■ Mobile Coverage
Portable On-Street Coverage
■■ Portable liv lull ding Cevorega
Photo courtesy of the Dawson County Board of Commissioners
Brian Barber used this coverage comparison map to show the differences between the two proposed radio
upgrade plans.
FROM 1A
Radio
almost a year of special purpose
local option sales tax collections.
As planning progresses, each
initiative is expected to come
back before the BOC at a future
date for votes to release requests
for price (RFPs). These projects
must be funded in full before any
other initiative in the SPLOST
project list.
The county’s radio system was
last upgraded about ten years ago.
Its current problems include lack
ing coverage throughout the
county when portable radios are
used and inside buildings, heavy
static, radios not transmitting to
consoles inside the dispatch cen
ter and an inability to communi
cate with Hall, Forsyth, Cherokee
and Cobb Counties.
“I sincerely appreciate the
Commissioners moving this radio
project forward,” said Dawson
County Sheriff Jeff Johnson.
“This has been a desperately
needed system that will greatly
enhance our communications,
resulting in greater levels of ser
vice and security for our commu
nity and public safety profession
als.”
Option one
During the June 16 meeting,
DCSO Maj. Greg Rowan gave a
joint presentation about the pro
posed radio system upgrades with
Brian Barber of Federal
Engineering, a consulting nation
al public safety communications
firm.
Barber said the first option was
to basically stay in the same fre
quency band but upgrade it to
Project 25 (P25), the standard for
public safety communications.
It would use Dawson County’s
three existing sites while also
adding a new site on Monument
Road in Pickens County and
using Forsyth County’s VHF P25
site. It would also entail new sub
scribers, base stations and related
equipment while leaving in a
VHF (very high frequency) chan
nel for interoperability and fire
paging. The existing Forsyth site
would improve mobile or mount
ed radio coverage as well as por
table coverage slightly. However,
this option doesn’t help with por
table in-building coverage, said
Barber.
The sites would also be con
nected in a ring microwave net
work or configuration, so if one
link was to go down, the signal
traffic would go in the opposite
direction so communication
wouldn’t be lost with the whole
radio system.
Barber elaborated that VHF is
“a very difficult band” to deploy
new systems in because of the
challenge with finding new fre
quencies, as was the case with
Dawson County’s 2012 radio
upgrade. Dawson’s current VHF
is already capacity-constrained
from limited channels, so a tran
sition would be made more diffi
cult.
It’s also prone to environmental
noise from things like lighting
and building thermostats, which
ends up impeding radio signals
getting to an end user.
“We don’t expect that problem
to get better with VHF We expect
it to get worse,” Barber said.
“Your coverage in VHF might be
adequate today, but I can’t guar
antee to you that it’ll be adequate
10 years from now.”
Option two
Barber called the second option
or alternative similar to alterna
tive one in terms of leveraging the
existing Dawson sites, but it
involves moving to the 700-
800mhz P25 band and adding
two more Forsyth sites to the
five-prong configuration.
It’s easier to get more channels
in the latter band, with a dedicat
ed bank of channels for public
safety entities, and there’s not the
same type of interference issues
as VHF. Environmental noise
isn’t as much of an issue.
While it would take a few more
sites to provide the same level of
mobile coverage in option two as
in the first one, the in-building
coverage with the 700-800mhz
system would be much better,
Barber said.
The more new infrastructure
needed will initially make the
radio system transition more dif
ficult, but Federal Engineering
has managed that move for agen
cies across the country, he added.
Barber used a diagram map to
show the differences in types of
coverage between the two
upgrade options. With the dia
gram, blue stood for mobile radio
coverage, while yellow stood for
portable outside coverage and
green stood for portable in-build
ing.
“You can see the difference in-
building coverage between the
two alternatives is pretty drastic
or significant,” Barber said. “The
700-800[mhz] option with the
site configuration that we did in
the second design would provide
much more in-building coverage
and portable outdoor coverage
than alternative one would in
VHF.”
Dawson County could imple
ment either option as a stand
alone system which it owns and
operates or look at sharing oppor
tunities where an adjacent county,
like Cobb or Hall, would already
have a control network or system
to connect to and reduce cost.
The disadvantage there is that
Dawson would be locked into the
same upgrade plan and would
have to upgrade at the same time
as network partners, so funding
would have to be in place for that,
Barber said.
Three of the neighboring coun
ties are currently on VHF and
three are on the 700-800mhz
option, and all of the P25-
adjacent systems are in that latter
band range.
Upgrade costs
In terms of numbers, the coun
ty would be looking at a capital
cost of either $8-11 million for
the first option versus $10-13.5
million for the second one.
Projected costs were based on
using radio-specific rather than
cell towers.
Barber pointed out that the sec
ond option doesn’t have some of
the VHF alternative’s risks, and
there’d be more opportunities for
cost-sharing with the 700-
800mhz option.
If Dawson joined with Cobb’s
network control center, the cost
savings to expand it rather than
buying a new one could be as
much as $500,000. Similarly,
since Forsyth is in the beginning
stages of building a radio site on
Old Federal Highway, Dawson
could come in and partner with
them to help build that site and
reduce some of the costs and
development time associated with
that site build.
He did remind the county com
missioners that they’d have to be
on the same upgrade cycle, which
tends to be in the two-four year
range, and design plans would
similarly have to be done in part
nership with that other entity.
Intergovernmental agreements
would also have to be in place for
details about land ownership,
funding and management.
Dawson County could poten
tially come to own the Pickens
tower since it’d be at a new site.
Partnering with Forsyth could
entail co-ownership or a sharing
agreement if that county builds it
and Dawson wants to work out a
sharing agreement to hop onto
that site. There’s possibly enough
room for Dawson to be added on
at Forsyth’s Mollyview site, but a
further analysis would have to be
done to confirm that.
Estimated support costs would
be either $1.9 million vs. $2.4
million respectively for each
option, both of which would
include recurring upgrades to
keep a system current. A three-
year warranty would cover the
chosen system’s deployment
stage before those life cycle sup
port plan costs, which are usually
spread out over multiple years,
kick in.
“With the growth you guys are
having here, I’d expect you guys
are going to have to expand the
system at some point. So you
need to be on that upgrade path in
order to do that,” Barber said.
When Gaines asked about a
potential life span for the pro
posed system, Barber explained
that P25 is a user-driven standard
that continues to evolve as capa
bilities are added.
“I don’t think you’re investing
in technology that has a horizon.
It continues to evolve as it has for
the last 25-plus years,” Barber
said.
The engineer also confirmed,
per District 4 Commissioner
Emory Dooley’s question, that
the projected cost numbers are
based off of Dawson building
their own tower at the Forsyth
Old Federal Highway site and
doing things like structural analy
ses at the Mollyview location.
Barber said he could not guar
antee firmer numbers until mov
ing forward with an option, con
sidering increased inflation in the
market and higher costs in terms
of steel and labor prices.
Once the county decides which
direction to go in, Federal
Engineering will build the func
tional specifications. Barber sug
gested building a standalone
option as a primary with another
proposal for cost and network
sharing to better anticipate both
options’ costs and have more
information on which to base
their final decision.
He doubted that prices for a
radio project would decrease if
inflation came under more con
trol.
“In the 36 years I’ve been
doing this, I’ve never seen the
costs of radio systems go down,”
he said. “It would not be a fair
expectation and that if you were
to wait...that it’d be less money
later.”
FROM 1A
Camp
Rogers said.
This year’s Camp Invention
theme was “Explore”, and the
week was aimed at allowing stu
dents to explore their creativity
and innovation through fun,
hands-on activities. Students
brought in their own “inventor
supplies” from home, demon
strating that they didn’t need a
robotics kit or special equipment
in order to be creative.
“Their ‘inventor supplies’ could
be empty paper towel rolls, empty
toilet paper rolls, empty shoe-
boxes, empty bottles —
showing that you can use the
junk around your house to be
creative,” Rogers said.
Throughout the week, stu
dents participated in several
fun modules, including:
• Marble Arcade: A
module teaching stu
dents about physics,
engineering and scien
tific principles like
potential and kinetic
energy as they design
and build their own
“marble arcade”
game.
• The Attic: A module
teaching students
about inventions that
have changed the way
that people create.
• Robotic Aquatics: A
module teaching stu
dents about ocean
research as they adopt
their own aquatic ani
mal and design a habi
tat for it.
• Space-Cation: A mod
ule teaching students
about space explora
tion as they build their
own “Spacepacks”
and “Astro-Arm”
devices and collect
data on how animals
can hatch and grow in
space.
Students also kept an “inven
tor’s log” throughout the week,
recording everything they did
with each project and learning
experience.
“As a retired school teacher, it’s
amazing to me that these students
are integrating reading, writing,
science and social studies all in a
‘play’-type atmosphere; they’re
playing with science and it’s
amazing,” Rogers said.
Each year, Dawson County
Schools has scholarship funds
available to help students attend
the camp. According to Rogers,
this includes a generous donation
from Nordson Corporation and
an allotment from the Dawson
County Board of Education. This
year, scholarships included
$10,000 from Nordson and
$15,000 from the BOE.
“Every penny of that goes to
pay the students’ tuition to come
to camp,” Rogers said. “The
instructors are all paid through
the National Inventors Society
and the high school workers
receive volunteer hours that they
can accumulate toward their
community service cords when
they graduate.”
The school system’s food ser
vices provided free hot breakfasts
and hot lunches for all of the
campers, and the custodial staff
kept the building clean after each
day of camp, Rogers added.
Each year, enrollment in Camp
Invention has increased, and this
year was no exception. Rogers
said that, as word about Camp
Invention spreads each year, the
camp just keeps gaining populari
ty.
“The number increases every
single year; we have 20 more stu
dents that have shown up this
year than from last year,” Rogers
said. “We’ve got students all the
way from Florida that relatives
told other relatives about coming
to camp last year and families
made vacation plans to come visit
grandparents so that they could
actually come to camp — so
we’ve got multiple counties,
we’ve got multiple states repre
sented, so overall the word has
gotten out and we have had so
many compliments.”
This year’s Camp Invention
was a huge success, Rogers said,
and campers are already excited
to return next year.
“This year’s camp has been
absolutely amazing,” Rogers said.
“It allows organized learning to
continue all through the summer
— overall it has just been an
amazing week.”
NOTICE
The Dawson County County Board of Commissioners does hereby announce that the millage rate will be set at a meeting to be held at the
Dawson County Government Center, 25 Justice Way, on August 4,2022 at 6:00 pm and pursuant to the requirements of O.C.G.A. § 48-5-32 does hereby publish the
following presentation of the current year's tax digest and levy, along with the history of the tax digest and levy for the past five years.
CURRENT 2022 PROPERTY TAX DIGEST AND 5 YEAR HISTORY OF LEVY
UNINCORPORATED
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
U
Real & Personal
1,394,032,646
1,572,997,915
1,593,936,454
1,709,619,583
1,780,490,982
2,068,294,890
N
|
Motor Vehicles
28,320,790
22,736,970
18,877,500
16,163,420
14,599,480
13,548,070
N
V
Mobile Homes
952,109
1,493,910
1,711,047
1,771,544
2,012,335
2,133,907
C
A
Timber - 100%
96,561
190,449
200,000
23,575
42,210
69,566
o
U
Heavy Duty Equipment
0
0
0
0
0
0
p
E
Gross Digest
1,423,402,106.00
1,597,419,244.00
1,614,725,001.00
1,727,578,122.00
1,797,145,007.00
2,084,046,433.00
o
Less Exemptions
201,405,457
222,450,006
223,081,756
237,439,595
238,279,470
225,792,886
R
NET DIGEST VALUE
1,221,996,649.00
1,374,969,238.00
1,391,643,245.00
1,490,138,527.00
1,558,865,537.00
1,858,253,547.00
T
E
D
R
Gross Maintenance &
Operation Millage
14.4250
14.5990
13.0790
13.0310
13.0630
12.3455
A
T
Less Rollbacks
E
(Local Option Sales Tax &
6.2870
6.4610
4.9900
5.1460
5.4380
5.1230
E
Insurance Premium)
A
NET M&O MILLAGE RATE
8.1380
8.1380
8.0890
7.8850
7.6250
7.2225
TAX
NET M&O TAXES LEVIED
$9,944,609
$11,189,500
$11,257,002
$11,749,742
$11,886,350
$13,421,236
INCORPORATED
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
1
N
c
Real & Personal
102,426,129
122,042,206
134,753,874
152,060,737
171,242,679
202,876,805
Motor Vehicles
54,600
49,200
34,090
93,380
205,940
275,210
o
V
Mobile Homes
0
0
0
0
0
0
R
A
Timber - 100%
0
0
0
13,913
0
0
P
U
Heavy Duty Equipment
0
0
0
0
0
0
R
E
Gross Digest
102,480,729.00
122,091,406.00
134,787,964.00
152,168,030.00
171,448,619.00
203,152,015.00
A
Less Exemptions
13,990,679
17,519,295
20,860,421
23,550,047
25,461,001
26,693,464
T
NET DIGEST VALUE
88,490,050.00
104,572,111.00
113,927,543.00
128,617,983.00
145,987,618.00
176,458,551.00
D
R
Gross Maintenance &
Operation Millage
14.4250
14.5990
13.0790
13.0310
13.0630
12.3455
A
R
E
A
T
E
Less Rollback
(Local Option Sales Tax)
6.2870
6.4610
4.9900
5.1460
5.4380
5.1230
A
NET M&O MILLAGE RATE
8.1380
8.1380
8.0890
7.8850
7.6250
7.2225
TAX
NET M&O TAXES LEVIED
$720,132
$851,008
$921,560
$1,014,153
$1,113,156
$1,274,472
TOTAL COUNTY
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
TOTAL DIGEST VALUE
1,310,486,699.00
1,479,541,349.00
1,505,570,788.00
1,618,756,510.00
1,704,853,155.00
2,034,712,098.00
%
TOTAL M&O TAXES LEVIED
$ 10,664,741
$ 12,040,507
$ 12,178,562
$ 12,763,895
$ 12,999,505
$ 14,695,708
Net Tax $ Increase
$594,460
$1,375,767
$ 138,055
$ 585,333
$ 235,610
$ 1,696,203
Net Tax % Increase
5.90%
12.90%
1.15%
4.81%
1.85%
13.05%
