TOCCOA, Ga. — Stephens County will buy about $1.37 million worth of new equipment for the E-911 department.

County commissioners voted 3-2 Tuesday to approve two motions.

One of the motions involved a communications system agreement between the county and Motorola Solutions for the purchase of the E-911 equipment. Commissioners had awarded the bid last month. The other motion involved financing for a lease/purchase of the equipment. Commissioners approved a proposal from South State Bank to finance the equipment over five years at a fixed interest rate of 2.082 percent with no prepayment penalty.

Stephens County will receive a new phone system, radio consoles, and infrastructure upgrade from Motorola.

Stephens County administrator Phyllis Ayers said the county could use money from multiple sources to pay for the expense.

“This would be paid for definitely by SPLOST (special purpose local option sales tax) VI funds as a part, and for the other part, there are a lot of different sections it could be pulled from,” Ayers said.

County commissioners Stanley London and Debbie Whitlock voted against the motion Tuesday.

London said the county has only budgeted $750,000 of special sales tax revenue for E-911, not enough to cover the full cost of the equipment in question.

“I just feel like we set a budget for SPLOST projects, and this is bad timing,” he said.

London added that the $750,000 was also intended to help meet other emergency communications needs, and meeting those may now be delayed.

Whitlock also cited the cost of the equipment when opposing the motions.

London and Whitlock last month voted against the motion to award the bid to Motorola for the equipment.

Motorola’s bid approved last month was not the lowest one. That came from Gunby Communications of Toccoa and was for slightly less than $590,000.

Stephens County Board of Commissioners Chairman Dean Scarborough said last month that he supported Motorola’s bid based on quite a bit of investigation, several sources including surrounding counties, staff recommendations, and other factors.