Union County 911 Director David Dyer, 911 Lt. Millie Baxter and the many hardworking 911 Dispatchers are excited to announce that the brand-new, state-of-the-art Union County E-911 Center will host a ribbon cutting ceremony and community tours on Thursday, Oct. 22.
In concert with the Blairsville-Union County Chamber of Commerce, the ribbon cutting is set for 10 a.m. that Thursday at 455 Shoe Factory Road, right next door to Fire Station No. 1. The new building will be dedicated during the ribbon cutting.
Continue reading with a subscription.
North Georgia News — serving Union County since 1909.
Cancel anytime.
Then from 5-7 p.m. the same day, 911 Center staff will welcome the public to an open house event, complete with informational tours of both the Dispatch Center on the bottom floor and the 911 Mapping offices up top. Light refreshments will be served.
“This building was designed to take us 20 years into the future,” Dyer said by way of preview. “It’s able to expand when we need it to, based on population growth and call volume.”
Discussions and planning for the project got underway several years ago, and the construction process progressed to groundbreaking in May of 2025.
Construction wrapped up recently, but some of the new technology remains to be delivered, and dispatcher training and equipment testing must follow, so Dyer is aiming for the start of 2027 to shift 911 services over from the current headquarters on Hunt-Martin Street.
Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax proceeds paid for the project, enabling a facility that was designed from the ground up for emergency communications. The final costs work out to about $5 million, including $3.8 million for construction and $1.2 million for equipment.
The space in and around the building has been maximized for its intended purposes, including an expandable dispatch communications room, removable flooring for easy wiring access, redundant power systems, a new radio tower, secure storage, and capacity for future offices.
All counties in the state must eventually transition from legacy centers, which use outdated copper wire networks that are being phased out, to the internet-based digital system known as “Next Generation 911,” and the new facility puts Union County well ahead of the curve.
When the center officially opens, it will be one of a few in Georgia to have made the switch. Early adoption establishes Union County as a state leader, and getting the building done now saves local taxpayers money in the long run due to the inevitability of rising costs.
It’s a huge step compared with the legacy technology in use today, which is fast becoming obsolete – a major motivating factor behind 911 Director Dyer’s push to go ahead with an intentionally designed facility.
Next Gen 911 will bring new capabilities such as precise satellite geolocation of cellphones; multimedia integration to allow callers to share live streams, videos and pictures; automatic emergency call re-routing if disaster strikes; real-time language translation; and more.
This will be the third venue to host local 911 services. In the early 1990s, Union County teamed up with Towns County for a joint emergency dispatch operation tacked onto the old Union-Towns Jail. The technology at the time included landline telephones, radios, pens and paper.
In 1999, the counties split into separate 911 services, and Union County moved dispatchers into the basement of the Old Union County Nursing Home on Hunt-Martin Street. It wasn’t ideal, but the improvised space served its purpose, including the first use of computerized 911 technology and expansion to enhanced mapping capabilities.
However, the ongoing deterioration of the old building meant that dispatchers would need to find a new home ahead of the impending Next Gen target, because the repurposed basement was simply not capable of housing the updated technology and equipment configurations.
And thanks to SPLOST and forward-thinking community leaders, Union County E-911 is finally ready to unveil the first-of-its-kind local facility that was specifically designed to be a 911 Center, bringing first response here into a breakthrough era of telecommunications and mapping.
That’s terrific news for everyone living, working and playing in Union County, and 911 Lt. Millie Baxter eagerly awaits the public attending Oct. 22 to see how their tax dollars are being used.
“When we go live, the building will be secured, so this is the public’s chance to come in and see the center before we go live and have to secure it,” Baxter said. “People will be able to meet a lot of the dispatchers – you never see the face that goes with that voice, so this is your chance.”
Veteran Dispatcher Amanda Hammond is likewise excited to show people what amounts to a dream come true for Union County E-911; dispatchers work every day with matters of life and death, and the tools they have at their disposal make a big difference.
“The new technology will be very helpful for us,” Hammond said. “For example, right now, we work off cellphone towers that triangulate caller locations, but you have an uncertainty factor. The new technology will help us know specific locations, and that’s going to help tremendously with a lot of things.”
Additionally, Dyer hopes everyone realizes the importance of a certain state constitutional amendment on the ballot this year. If the amendment passes, a share of local 911 maintenance and operation costs will be covered by state revenues, which would save local tax dollars.
