Certain area phone customers will see a slight increase in their monthly bills in the months ahead, with the additional fees to go to help shorten emergency response times.

The Carroll County Board of Commissioners voted on Oct. 6 to increase the monthly amount charged to cell phone and voice-over Internet protocol customers by 50 cents, upping the monthly amount from $1 to $1.50.

The increase will go to fund the implementation of a Phase II wireless 911 system, which will allow dispatchers to recognize exactly where customers are when they call from a cell phone or using a VoIP service through their local cable provider. In the past, the Phase I system failed to show specifically where calls on these services were made, said Carroll County E-911 Director Trisha Orr. Instead, the address given for a particular caller would be the cell tower used to broadcast their respective call, preventing emergency responders from knowing where the call was coming from if the caller did not know the location or was unable to give the location to the dispatcher for whatever reason.

As authorized through Chapter 5, Article 2 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, the county is given the authority to increase the amount charged to certain phone customers to help provide funding for emergency response systems.

Orr said that, if anything, the change will better ensure that area residents will be able to receive emergency attention if they need it, and it comes at a nominal cost considering the good that it will inevitably do.

“Speed is everything. Response time can save a life,” Orr said. “Having accurate information means everything to get our responding units to that location, and that’s what it’s all about.”

The board also voted at its last meeting to table the purchase of a new computer-assisted dispatch system for the E-911 department, citing concerns that it is simply unnecessary. As it stands, the current system at the department is less than two years old and came at a cost of $400,000.

According to a proposal from LAS, the Roopville-based provider of the proposed CAD system, the projected cost to the county could come to nearly $150,000, with $5,000 a month to be paid over three months for the CAD system itself; $5,715 a month to be paid for a calendar year for an additional geographic information system used to pinpoint where callers are in the county; and $5,415 a month to be paid for 12 months to go toward a digital-mapping system.

Ultimately, said Commissioner Ashley Hendrix, the board will do what it needs to do to ensure the safety of county residents, and the Phase II system will do just that.

“Anything better to locate somebody in times of need is a benefit for the county,” Hendrix said.