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Fayette County residents may soon be paying an

additional $1 to $1.50 per month per phone on

their wireless phone bills.

Governments

in Peachtree City, Fayetteville, Tyrone and

Brooks all will be asked to consider charging the

tax for emergency 911 service that is currently

affecting only cellular phone customers in

unincorporated areas of the county.

In

fact, it's mainly due to an oversight that city

residents aren't already being charged the E-911

fee for each cell phone, said county manager

Billy Beckett.

Fayette's

government began levying the fees last year to

help pay for new equipment that's mandated by the

federal government, Beckett reminded municipal

leaders last week.

The

equipment, which will enable emergency operators

to pinpoint the location of anyone calling 911

from a cell phone, should already have been

installed, he said.

"We

are behind the eight ball on this thing," he

told members of the county FUTURE committee last

week. FUTURE (Fayette United Team to Use

Resources Effectively), composed of mayors, city

managers, the county manager and County

Commission chairman, meets periodically to

discuss ways the county and cities can cooperate

to improve service and reduce costs.

"We're

not interested in skinning people," said

Beckett, acknowledging that numerous county

residents have complained about the mounting

number of fees attached to phone lines and cell

phone service. "But this is something that

potentially could save a number of lives."

People

calling 911 from cell phones often don't know

where they are because they're from out of town,

or they can't communicate for one reason or

another, he said.

"I

was driving home from a soccer match the other

day, and thought that I was having a heart

attack," he related. "I knew where I

was, but there was no way I could have

communicated that to a dispatcher," he said.

But

in order to raise the approximately $200,000

needed to install the new equipment, cities need

to levy the fee on their residents so those

dollars can be added to the ones being collected

The

E-911 center is jointly supported by the cities

and county, and dispatches all emergency services

within the county.

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