Major Jeff Barrett, representing the Marshal's Office, presented three SPLOST 9 requests at the July 1 work session: a joint security operations center (JSOC), airport security integration and security‑infrastructure improvements (fiber, servers, switches and redundancy).

“This is something that we started on years ago,” Major Barrett said, noting the county currently operates multiple smaller operations centers at the airport, the judicial center and the municipal building. He said a consolidated JSOC would be staffed and monitored 24/7 and should be designed to support multiple partner agencies, including the sheriff’s office, transit and other county stakeholders.

Barrett provided a rough cost and schedule framework: he said market construction costs are approximately $1,000 per square foot, a minimum operational size would be 5,000 square feet (10,000 preferable), and project completion could take roughly 22 to 31 months. The marshal’s office said the JSOC could be housed in an existing county facility or built new and that staff had begun initial architectural conversations.

On airport integration, Barrett said the goal is to provide redundancy that does not disrupt the airport’s existing closed system. ‘‘We are able to let them have their closed system, but also have a redundant backup should there be a problem that takes theirs ops center down,’’ he said. The proposal includes GenTech conversions, licensing and monitored internal and external monitoring spaces, with access controls set by the airport.

The security‑infrastructure ask focuses on core, behind‑the‑scenes systems: Barrett told commissioners that fiber, servers, UPS, switches and other redundancy are needed to keep the current enterprise systems secure and reliable.

Commissioners asked clarifying questions; no final decision or funding commitment was made. Barrett encouraged commissioners to visit the most active operations center in the municipal building and said the marshal’s office is prepared to collaborate with other agencies on design and siting.