Peach County Commissioners agree to fund emergency services aid

FORT VALLEY, Ga. – Peach County’s Board of Commissioners held a called meeting to discuss three orders of business on Wednesday, May 29 at 3 p.m.

The first discussion centered on analyzing changes that were made to a lease agreement for Old Peach County High School by County Attorney, Jeff Liipfert. The Board of Commissioners plans to lease the Old Peach County High School Wing B and the gymnasium for the next 50 years. There are also plans to locate selected offices in the facility, once renovations are completed.

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County Administrator April H. Hodges went through multiple adjustments, removals and additions to the language requested by Attorney Liipfert. After discussing the changes and further elaborating on why the alterations were made, the committee unanimously approved the changes.

The second item on the itinerary was whether to approve budget spending for a license plate recognition camera system from Flock Safety. The Peach County Sheriff’s Office is planning on purchasing 14 cameras. Multiple neighboring police departments have started to implement similar camera systems.

Peach County Sheriff Terry Deese explained that Flock Safety had reached out and would be increasing the price of the camera systems by April 1, 2023. These cameras would be put at strategic points at the edges of the county, instead of at traffic lights. Due to the short time frame, Sheriff Deese hoped that the committee would approve his request to acquire the camera system as it would save roughly $19,000 for the systems.

Chairman Martin Moseley asked Sheriff Deese to further elaborate on what functions the cameras possessed. Sheriff Deese explained that these cameras are not capable of clocking the speed of a vehicle, only reading the license plate number and storing it in a national database.

Sheriff Deese further elaborated that these cameras would excel in the cases of Amber Alerts. When looking for specific license plates, if the camera clocks that license it can alert the authorities of that vehicle’s location. Another example he provided was that these cameras would help in locating stolen vehicles by license plates. The system would send out an alert that would list the time, location and direction that the vehicle was going.

Sheriff Deese explained that if a crime occurred and the authorities have the tag number, they can put that number in the database and the cameras will alert them if that vehicle drives past them. The committee unanimously approved funding the camera system out of the contingency and general funds.

The final item was a vote on whether or not to allow Peach County Fire Department to apply for the Georgia Firefighters Standards and Training 2023 Fireworks Tax Grant. The fire department applied for 14 new turbojet nozzles and 39 sections of replacement fire hoses, with a quote of $17,958.

Administrator Hodges explained that the grant is a 10% match grant. If the Peach County Fire Department succeeded in getting the grant, Peach County would pay $1,795.80. Chairman Shanita Bryant suggested that if the fire department is approved for the grant, the Board gets the necessary budget amendment to account for the cost. The committee unanimously approved.