The Columbia County Management and Internal Services Committee approved moving forward with changing the emergency mass notification system.
Shawn Granato, director of Columbia County Emergency Management Agency, told committee members there have been issues with the CodeRed system over the past few years, including sending out incorrect messages.
“You put something in the system, and it sends out something completely different when it comes to missing persons and what not,” Granato said.
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The cost for the system is $33,000 per year, which is approximately $2,900 less than the CodeRed system. The system, and cost, will be used by the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office, EMA, water utility and traffic engineering. The new system will also give the county access to the database, which they currently don’t have with CodeRed.
The committee approved moving forward with the independent contractor agreement with the Asher Group for the Hyper-Reach Emergency Mass Notification system.
The committee also approved canceling the MIS meeting on April 9 due to that week being the Masters. County Manager Scott Johnson said that typically the committee meeting is moved to before or after Masters week, but with how things are lining up, it would be easier to cancel the meeting altogether.
“Any items that we would have for either one of these committees, if it’s something that’s very pressing, we’ll either take it to another committee.,” Johnson said. “If not, we’ll just wait to the next time we have that committee.”
Stephanie Hill is the managing editor and covers Columbia County government for The Augusta Press. Reach her at stephanie@theaugustapress.com.
