Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Infrastructure topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
County IT consultant warns jail is vulnerable to single‑point failure; recommends fiber redundancy
Summary
Cabot Howell, the county's IT consultant, told commissioners a leased fiber/microwave link serving the jail failed during storms and recommended adding a dedicated dark‑fiber circuit or other redundancy; estimated cost was about $21,000 upfront and $1,200/month, prompting some commissioners to question the expenditure given the rarity of outages.
Cabot Howell, Haralson County's IT consultant, told the Board of Commissioners the county's jail operates on a network path that currently contains a single point of failure and that a recent storm caused an outage that left jail systems offline for roughly two days. Howell said the county's original configuration used a microwave link to the jail when the facility moved; since then, the county has leased fiber along the railroad via a third party (identified in testimony as Parker Fiber). He said an intermediate device on that leased path failed during the storm, disrupting cameras, GCIC access and jail management software.
"We put in dark fiber… So I'm trying to get Parker to put in a what's called dark fiber… it's about 21,000 upfront and about 1,200 a month," Howell said, describing a dedicated fiber installation that would remove dependence on the leased path. He described the jail as a 24/7, 365‑day operation that must remain online to meet regulatory and auditing requirements.
Several commissioners pushed back on the cost and timing. One commissioner questioned why Parker Fiber had not fixed the issue sooner and argued the problem had a simple reset that took roughly 30 minutes to resolve during the most recent outage; that commissioner said paying for full redundancy did not “pencil out” when outages so far have been rare. Howell replied that the vendor routing and leasing arrangement exposes the county to an external single point of failure and that the option presented reduces long‑term operational risk.
Howell also said he continued to negotiate with the fiber provider to reduce costs and had previously secured $0 install terms in other circumstances; commissioners asked for clarification about the specific ownership of the fiber in the railroad right‑of‑way and whether a less expensive backup (for example cellular) would suffice for the jail's bandwidth needs. Howell warned that cellular may not meet the needs of cameras and GCIC access.
No vote was taken. Commissioners thanked Howell for the briefing and asked staff to provide additional cost comparisons and procurement options for a future decision.
