MOULTRIE, Ga. — The Colquitt County Search and Rescue Team remains in limbo almost three months after county officials thought they had a solution to the team’s troubles.

The Search and Rescue Team is a private group of about 18 volunteers. It has served the county perhaps as far back as the 1970s, assisting in locating missing people or in other emergency situations. 

It does not, however, have a contract with the county, and it can’t sign one until it is incorporated as an independent entity. Its members used vehicles that were insured by the county government, even though they didn’t belong to the county, according to statements at county Board of Commissioners meetings in September and October. When that came to light, the county confiscated the vehicles’ keys and license plates and the rescue team could no longer function as it had for years.

With the help of County Attorney Lester Castellow, team officials quickly started to set up a nonprofit corporation, but they ran into a snag.

The Colquitt County Search and Rescue Team is one of only five private rescue teams in the state, and that puts them in a special category. Castellow told commissioners Oct. 19 that under state law a private rescue team cannot operate unless it’s certified by the Georgia Emergency Management Agency. Most rescue teams in the state operate as part of a government agency — city fire department, county sheriff’s office, etc. — and therefore follow different rules. If the local team has a contract to operate for the county, does that mean it has to follow the rules for a private team or those for a government team?

That’s a big deal because GEMA no longer has rules for how to certify a private rescue team, Castellow said at that Oct. 19 meeting. Previous rules were repealed more than a year before that, he said, and new ones have not been passed.

At the county commission meeting Tuesday, Jan. 4, Castellow was asked for an update on the situation. He said nothing had really changed.

He said he’s spoken with three people at GEMA, including the agency’s lawyer and two training officials, but none of them offered any kind of resolution to the impasse. 

County commissioners urged County Administrator Chas Cannon to communicate the situation to state Rep. Sam Watson, R-Moultrie, in hopes he could make something happen. Cannon said he speaks with Watson frequently — including earlier that same day — and he often brings up the rescue team issue. Commissioners specifically asked if Cannon could persuade Watson to take their concerns to Gov. Brian Kemp. He said he would speak with Watson about it.

Police pursuits

Also at Tuesday’s meeting, the county commission requested a copy of the county sheriff’s department’s policy on police pursuits. 

Commissioner Barbara Jelks raised a concern about a traffic stop executed by the Moultrie Police Department in which the suspect vehicle tried to flee at a high rate of speed before crashing, killing the driver and a passenger. The incident happened in a residential area of the city Jan. 1. 

The crash was the second fatality involving a local police agency in nine days. The earlier incident, on Dec. 23, involved a county sheriff’s deputy trying to stop a speeder who took off from him. In that incident, the speeder’s car struck another vehicle. The fleeing driver died the following day, and his passenger and the driver of the other car were also seriously hurt.

Commissioners affirmed that they have no oversight over the Moultrie Police Department, which is governed by the Moultrie City Council, nor over the Colquitt County Sheriff’s Office. The sheriff is a constitutional officer, elected separately by the county’s voters, and even though the county commission determines the sheriff’s department’s budget, leadership of the department rests solely on the sheriff’s shoulders.

Sheriff Rod Howell was not at Tuesday night’s meeting, but Cannon texted him the request and said Howell responded that he’d have the policy to him Wednesday.

Jelks’ main concern was the city pursuit because it was in a residential area. During discussions, Commissioner Paul Nagy lamented the lack of respect for law enforcement that he said was part of the reason drivers flee traffic stops. He said it’s gotten worse in the last five years, especially the last two.

Commissioner Mike Boyd, a retired Georgia State Patrol trooper, sympathized with Jelks’ position, but he said officers are in a difficult position. He said if they don’t pursue and the driver is in a fatal wreck, some would say that’s the officer’s fault too — for not stopping him before the crash.

“Let me make it clear,” Boyd said, “this commission is 100 percent in support of local law enforcement.”

In other action

During Tuesday’s meeting the board also:

• Re-appointed Castellow as county attorney; Dr. Woodwin Weeks as medical review officer/county physician; and Carr, Riggs and Ingram as county auditor.

• Re-appointed Becky Dupree to the Board of Tax Assessors.

• Set qualifying fees for county posts up for election in 2022: County Commission Districts 1, 3, 5 and 7 (District 7 is the chairman, elected throughout the county); Board of Education Districts 1, 4 and 5; and the chief magistrate judge.

• Approved a resolution supporting reform to Georgia’s annexation dispute resolution law. The Association County Commissioners of Georgia has made this a legislative priority, although it applies more to more populous areas than Colquitt County. In those areas, city and county governments are at odds over cities annexing unincorporated areas. The state legislature created a study committee last year to look at the issue; it issued a final report, and the ACCG asked county governments across the state to pass resolutions in support of the committee’s recommendations.

• Approved an indigent defense services agreement with the circuit public defender’s office.

• Declared an air compressor to be surplus and authorized its sale.

• Approved invoices for ACCG workers’ compensation coverage; for an audit by Carr, Riggs and Ingram; and for legal work by Castellow.