Haralson County reviews $21,007.72 proposal for redundant fiber to sheriff's office after 16-hour outage

Haralson County commissioners discussed a proposal to add redundant fiber service to the sheriff’s office after a lightning strike caused roughly 16 hours without internet or phones, preventing some jail and public-safety functions.

A county staff member said the sheriff’s office lost internet and phone service when existing fiber was struck by lightning and that the outage lasted about 16 hours, during which staff could not perform required tasks such as booking prisoners or releasing warrants. County staff presented a one-time installation cost of $21,007.72 for a second fiber connection and a recurring monthly charge of $1,367.00 to provide redundancy.

Commissioners questioned who installed the existing fiber line, whether the original vendor bore responsibility, and whether the county should pay to add a second line. One commissioner cautioned against immediately committing to the $21,000-plus installation and $1,300 monthly recurring cost and urged the board to examine other options.

Alternatives discussed included a standby network configuration (a lower-cost failover arrangement), acquiring service from a different provider on a separate route, isolating backup connectivity to booking functions only, and exploring satellite options such as Starlink for limited emergency use. A participant with data-center experience recommended exploring standby networking rather than immediately acquiring a full second live network.

No formal motion or vote to approve the installation is recorded in the transcript; commissioners asked staff to investigate options further before proceeding.