Commissioners approve study for 4-hour PSAP battery backup and to explore keeping dispatch in courthouse

The Carroll County Board of Commissioners voted to authorize an electrical engineering study of a four-hour backup battery system for the county's public-safety answering point (PSAP) and to explore keeping the PSAP in courthouse space rather than moving it to the annex.

A committee member argued the extra battery runtime is a necessary redundancy in case the generator fails, saying, "But with 4 hours of runtime, that would give us time to establish a backup generator and to get that backup generator online if the primary fails." The board moved and carried the measure to have the engineer prepare cost estimates for a four-hour backup option and to examine electrical hookups and a ground-level connection for a plug-in generator should a long-term outage occur.

Sheriff (introduced during discussion) said the preference is to keep sheriff's office functions and dispatch together: "From a management standpoint, I'd like to keep all the sheriff's office, in 1 location." He and committee members argued that keeping the PSAP in the courthouse preserves security camera connections and avoids the cramped conditions of the annex's secondary PSAP for day-to-day operations.

The discussion also noted existing mutual-aid arrangements: speakers explained that calls rollover to Columbiana County after about 30 seconds under a memorandum of understanding, but additional onsite battery runtime would avoid rollovers during extended outages. The motion to pursue the four-hour battery study and retain courthouse space for the PSAP was carried by voice vote.