That includes man-made or natural disasters according to Fire Chief Jon Canada. Council signed off on agreements to send assistance anywhere in Georgia and to receive the same under the Georgia Emergency Management Act. The Act also ensures timely reimbursement to local governments of the incurred cost for sending assistance.
"It makes that request of giving or receiving that assistance seamless so you don't have to go through a different process," Chief Canada said. "All this is done up front."
A new agreement permits the Gainesville based Georgia Search and Rescue Team to provide mutual aid.
"We are the host department for the team for this area," Canada added. "It expedites those requests when we are requested for assistance or we're requesting assistance; it also lays out the groundwork on how the city will pay or receive funds for that mutual aid if it becomes a Presidential declared event."
MID TOWN WITHOUT THE JAIL
City Council member Ruth Bruner says the old Hall County Jail might be a good central site for a downtown post office. Bruner said removing the jail is a key to Mid-Town.
"That's when things can really happen," Bruner said. "We'll take down the barbed wire, tear down the whole building and put that property on the market for a project. We don't even know what it could be, wouldn't it be wonderful to move the Post Office from where it is now down into Mid-Town."
Bruner sees new housing springing up, along with new retail and offices, something that would attract people and give developers an incentive, but the problem now is that razor wire.
"They're afraid to make a huge investment without knowing what's going to happen with that property," Bruner said. "The reason we want to buy it is we want to have some control over how many years they (Corrections Corporation of America) can be there. We would really like them to stay long enough for us to get rent to pay back most of the money we have to pay for the building."
The city of Gainesville has offered Hall County $7.2 million for the jail. Hall County last month had agreed to sell it to CCA for the same amount the city is now offering. CCA houses illegal immigrants in the jail.
Hall Commission Chairman Tom Oliver has said the two offers will be something for lawyers to review now, and he offered no timetable for the county to decide which offer to accept. Hall County and Gainesville officials have moved no closer to settling on who would buy the old jail.
That includes man-made or natural disasters according to Fire Chief Jon Canada (L)
City Council member Ruth Bruner says the old Hall County Jail might be a good central site for a downtown post office
http://accesswdun.com/article/2012/4/247166