Troup County has received a grant of $836,000 for improved radio communications among public safety agencies.

The grant will finance an 800 megahertz radio tower in the northern part of Troup County, allowing all public safety agencies in the county to communicate with each other, as well as Harris and Muscogee counties. The county will use funds from the special-purpose local-option sales tax to buy radios for firefighters and sheriff’s deputies.

The Parks and Recreation Department already has the new radios, but can’t communicate with staff members who venture into the Hogansville area. The probate office uses the radios during elections.

“The whole state is moving to 800 megahertz radios” so everybody can talk to each other, county planner Nancy Seegar said at Monday’s joint meeting among county commissioners and representatives of LaGrange, Hogansville and West Point.

Meanwhile, the county may be ready to adopt an impact fee ordinance by next spring. The fees are used to help offset the cost of government facilities that are needed to accommodate new growth, including roads, recreation, libraries, water and sewer infrastructure, and sheriff’s, fire and 911 facilities.

“If there’s any such thing as a fair tax, it’s impact fees,” said Bill Ross of Ross & Associates of Atlanta, who is helping the county develop an impact fee ordinance.

Many counties don’t charge the maximum fee, Ross said. One county charges 100 percent for parks and recreation, but only 30 percent for roads, he said.

Governments can waive the fees for such things as affordable housing and developments that are of particular benefit to the county, Ross said.

Impact fees are paid when a building permit is issued. Ross suggested the three cities collect fees that are used to build county-wide facilities, such as ballparks and jail expansions.

“The cities aren’t adopting impact fees, just collecting the county’s fee and sending the county a check from time to time,” he said.

Ross, who has helped other cities and counties impose impact fees, said he’s never seen the program drive away development.

“I’ve seen more cases where the development occurred without regard to impact fees,” he said, citing the example of Home Depot when it built a store in Roswell. He said Home Depot could have gone an eighth of a mile and put the store in a county that didn’t charge impact fees, but “they paid a $1 million impact fee because that’s where they wanted to be.”

Joe Martin can be reached at jmartin@ lagrangenews .com or at (706) 884-7311 Ext. 235.