The cities of Senoia and Grantville have six months to cut their administrative calls to the county's 911 service.

If the decrease doesn't happen, the cities could be looking at spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to build their own systems.

During Tuesday morning's Coweta County Commission meeting, the board approved a measure that would allow the county's 911 center to keep handling all the calls that come into it from the smaller municipalities, such as Senoia and Grantville.

But the county stipulated the deal will be off if the municipalities don't lower their non-emergency calls to the center to 40 percent of the total call volume.

County administrator Theron Gay presented the commissioners with figures from 911 that showed the cities had started reducing their call volume.

In Senoia, Mayor Joan Trammell said Police Chief Ben Thomas has met with the officers and is instructing them how to lower the call volume.

But even if the city complies with the county's request, Trammell realizes this is only a quick fix.

“We'll eventually have to do something to handle our own calls,” she said.

The debate started last summer when the county informed Senoia and Grantville they could no longer handle administrative calls, such as tag checks, because the call center was being overrun by non-emergency calls.

The city of Senoia looked at options, such as starting its own call center, but found the costs prohibitive.

In December, Senoia and Grantville asked the county for help until they could find a permanent solution.

One option Senoia officials are looking at is placing a computer in one of the patrol cars and making sure that car is always on patrol.

Trammell said the cost of an on-board computer is nearly $10,000 and Thomas is looking at possible grants to fund the expense.

In the meantime, the county will continue to handle the administrative calls until they're more than 40 percent of the total calls.

When that happens, said Commissioner Vernon “Mutt” Hunter, “We'll be back to square one.”

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