Brian Vanderhoff's North Fulton Real Estate Blog

September 08, 2011
MILTON, Ga. - Tammi Kimsey has thrown down the gauntlet and issued a challenge to the residents of Milton – fly your flag on Sept. 11.

Initially, Kimsey wanted her neighbors in the Avensong subdivision to take part. But that wasn't enough.

"After thinking about it more, I decided that I didn't want to just see Avensong accept this challenge, I wanted to see the entire city of Milton accept it," Kimsey said.

"Ten years ago, in the days after Sept. 11 happened, I remember how almost every home had their American flag flying proudly to show their patriotism and the solidarity our country had," said Kimsey. " I remember the feeling of pride I had seeing so many flags. And I want to honor the almost 3,000 who lost their lives on Sept. 11 in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania."

Now, 10 years later, Kimsey's son-in-law, Lt. Paul Christian Ritter, is serving overseas in the Navy, and his deployment has caused him to be largely absent for his newborn daughter's life.

"He has missed out on all of her 'firsts,'" Kimsey said. "The first time she rolled over, first time she started crawling, first tooth and she's very close to her first steps."

For all that time, his wife – Kimsey's daughter, Nicole, a Milton High School graduate -- has had to raise the child alone at their home in Washington state.

"I want to honor Christian's service to our country, and the service of the millions of men and women who voluntarily agree to put their lives and the lives of their families on hold, and are willing to go into harm's way in some of the most hostile environments, to keep a 9/11 from ever happening again," Kimsey said.

"On the anniversary of that horrible day, let's honor those that lost their lives, as well as all the military men and women who have given the ultimate sacrifice, their lives, during the fight against al-Qaeda in both Iraq and Afghanistan so that we can all feel safe here in the U.S," she said. "Let's have every home fly their American flag with the same pride they did 10 years ago."

Labels: 9/11, 911, 911 command and control center, city of milton, City of MIlton Property Taxes, milton, Milton City, milton county, Milton Georgia

The City of Milton will transition its Emergency 911 and Public Safety Dispatching from the Fulton County Emergency Dispatch Center and Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) to the City of Alpharetta Emergency Dispatch Center and PSAP on October 1, 2008. All wired phones or "land lines" will be changed through a programming process. Citizens that have these phones will not need to take any action.

It is important to note that citizens who have VOIP (voice over internet protocol) service may need to take action. It is the responsibility of those users to notify their service provider and tell them of the change.The information for the Alpharetta Public Safety E911 Dispatch Center and PSAP is as follows:

City of Alpharetta Dispatch Center
2565 Old Milton Parkway
Alpharetta, Georgia 30004
678.297.6300

Milton's Public Safety Department has been working to transition its dispatch center since its inception in May 2007. Thank you for your attention to this very important issue. Any questions, please contact the Milton Public Safety Department at 678.242.2570.

Labels: 911, changes, city of milton, fulton county dispatch center, public safety answering point, voip

An agreement for Alpharetta to dispatch Milton's police and firefighters will improve response times to emergency in "problem areas" in both cities, Alpharetta Public Safety Director Gary George told City Council Monday night.

An agreement between the cities was o discussed at a council workshop held at the city's new Command & Control Center being built within police headquarters.

When someone in Milton calls 911, Fulton County answers. But once the call is answered, there's no guarantee it will be dispatched properly. George told a story about a 911 call made with a cell phone from Alpharetta's North Park that was mis-routed by the Fulton dispatcher, who didn't recognize North Park's name. The call was transferred to Cobb and then to Gwinnett before finally being routed to Alpharetta.

The cities have an automatic mutual aid agreement between fire departments. Milton can respond to North Park, Kings Ridge Christian School and Crabapple faster than Alpharetta.

"Milton can beat us there any time of day, three or four minutes quicker," George said.

The trade off comes in the Bethany and Mayfield areas of Milton.
"We can help them probably 50 percent of the time get to their calls better," he said. "It's all about time, getting that first responder there."

Legislation creating the city required Fulton provide Milton's dispatching needs for up to two years. In exchange, Fulton has kept the $1.50 per cellphone and house phone paid by Milton's residents to offset those costs. The two years ends Dec. 31.

There is urgency to making the agreement, as ending the arrangement with Fulton County requires 90 days' notice. For a proposed change starting Oct. 1, the notice must be made by Aug. 1.

"Quite honestly at the end of the day it would be a win-win for all the citizens," George said.

Each city's fire departments will still respond to the emergency calls, handling all reports. Routine police calls will only be answered by respective cities' police.

Both cities have ladder trucks than can be positioned to cover the largest area for both cities. Since Milton parks its ladder truck at its city hall off Deerfield Parkway, Alpharetta could move its ladder truck to its station 3, closer to North Point Mall, the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre and those areas of Alpharetta.

Georgie reminded council that two weeks earlier they had approved an agreement that gives Alpharetta control of dispatching Rural Metro's six ambulances in North Fulton. Monitors in the new Command & Control center will show the location of every Alpharetta and Milton police and fire vehicle, plus all of Rural Metro's ambulances. GPS transponders will be installed in all emergency vehicles.

Labels: 911, Alpharetta, city of milton