The cities

of Senoia and Grantville have six months to cut their

administrative calls to the county's 911 service.

If the

decrease doesn't happen, the cities could be looking at

spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to build their

own systems.

During

Tuesday morning's Coweta County Commission meeting, the

board approved a measure that would allow the county's

911 center to keep handling all the calls that come into

it from the smaller municipalities, such as Senoia and

Grantville.

But the

county stipulated the deal will be off if the

municipalities don't lower their non-emergency calls to

the center to 40 percent of the total call volume.

County

administrator Theron Gay presented the commissioners with

figures from 911 that showed the cities had started

reducing their call volume.

In Senoia,

Mayor Joan Trammell said Police Chief Ben Thomas has met

with the officers and is instructing them how to lower

the call volume.

But even if

the city complies with the county's request, Trammell

realizes this is only a quick fix.

"We'll

eventually have to do something to handle our own

calls," she said.

The debate

started last summer when the county informed Senoia and

Grantville they could no longer handle administrative

calls, such as tag checks, because the call center was

being overrun by non-emergency calls.

The city of

Senoia looked at options, such as starting its own call

center, but found the costs prohibitive.

In

December, Senoia and Grantville asked the county for help

until they could find a permanent solution.

One option

Senoia officials are looking at is placing a computer in

one of the patrol cars and making sure that car is always

on patrol.

Trammell

said the cost of an on-board computer is nearly $10,000

and Thomas is looking at possible grants to fund the

expense.

In the

meantime, the county will continue to handle the

administrative calls until they're more than 40 percent

of the total calls.

When that

happens, said Commissioner Vernon "Mutt"

Hunter, "We'll be back to square one."