It wasn’t flashy, simple, or fast, but Emanuel County’s public safety modernization effort changed the game for local emergency response and has apparently become, according to the Georgia City-County Management Association (GCCMA), a model for how rural communities can implement their own upgrades without overextending resources.
GCCMA took a look at Emanuel County’s years-long effort to modernize emergency response and determined it to be award-winning. The organization recognized Emanuel with a 2026 Community Program Award in the Small County category, which includes jurisdictions serving populations under 25,000.
The Community Program Awards recognize cities and counties that implement innovative programs, projects, or policies addressing a defined local challenge. Judges evaluate submissions based on long-term impact, adaptability for other jurisdictions, creative problem-solving, efficient use of resources, measurable results, and equitable community outcomes. Emanuel County’s application highlighted not only the operational improvements created by the new EOC and countywide radio system but also the phased, resource-conscious approach used to achieve them in a rural environment.
In Emanuel County’s case, it celebrates what county leaders retrospectively dubbed its Public Safety Modernization Initiative, a multi-year effort that relocated 911 operations into a new Emergency Operations Center and deployed a state-of-the-art, countywide digital radio system to realize a single goal: strengthening response during critical moments.
Before the upgrades, Emanuel County’s emergency infrastructure was showing its age. The County’s longtime 911 center operated from a flood-prone basement facility of the Coleman Hotel with limited space and aging equipment while an outdated analog radio system often produced dead zones, dropped transmissions, and communication delays between numerous agencies spread across Emanuel County’s 680 square miles.
County Administrator Guy Singletary, Public Safety Director Courtney Terwilliger, and E-911 Coordinator Martha Culbreth traveled to the 2026 GCCMA Spring Conference in Athens and accepted the award from GCCMA President Adam Mestres on March 11.
Singletary says the County almost did not apply at all.
“We're not good at patting ourselves on the back; that's not what local government is about. That's not why we do what we do,” Singletary said. “Truthfully, I am of the opinion we shouldn’t pat ourselves on the back because governance requires some level of objectivity. What one person thinks is commendable, somebody else may think it’s not. And the reality is we can always do better.”
He continued, “But when the GCCMA coordinator emailed a reminder that the application period was still open, I remember looking over the award description. My initial response was, ‘I don’t know that we’ve done anything that necessarily fits this.’ But the more we thought about it, the questions they were asking, the problems they wanted communities to solve, the emphasis on long-term impact and adaptability, the more we realized we actually had done something pretty substantial here over the years. We just hadn’t really stopped to frame it that way. So we put the application, got it in right before the deadline, and hoped for the best.”
Terwilliger says he’s as proud of the work behind the project as he is of the award itself.
“Anyone who has worked in local emergency response or needed local emergency response knew the challenges we were dealing with. The problems with our radios and the physical environment of the old 911 center, those realities of yesteryear are not new information to anyone,” Terwilliger said. “These projects didn’t happen overnight, and they didn’t happen because we just threw money at the problem. There was a lot of planning, a lot of patience, and a lot of figuring out how to accomplish the goals we had set. So yes, it’s nice to see the work recognized, but the big thing is—and has always been--that our responders now have equipment they can rely on, our dispatchers have a facility they deserve, and the people calling for help are getting better emergency response because of it. Or at least we hope they are.”
Culbreth has found that to be true.
“For years, our team worked in a space that simply wasn’t built for what 911 and emergency management operations have become,” Culbreth said. “Now, we have the tools, the space, and the reliability to do our jobs the way they’re meant to be done. When someone calls for help, they can trust that we’re ready. Our dispatchers are more comfortable, and our men and women on the front lines are safer. All that makes a huge difference.”
Emanuel County is one of four Georgia communities recognized this year for innovative problem-solving. Other recipients include the City of Watkinsville for a multi-part initiative expanding public access through greenspace preservation and recreation partnerships; the City of Lawrenceville for converting a long-vacant apartment complex into a coordinated housing and stabilization center for men experiencing homelessness; and Columbia County for its organization-wide response and recovery efforts following Hurricane Helene.
While each project addressed different challenges, Emanuel County leaders say one common thread tied their effort together from beginning to end: finding a way to modernize critical public safety infrastructure without placing unnecessary burden on taxpayers.
Commission Chairman Jim Sherrod says that balancing act required years of careful strategizing, phased implementation, and fiscal discipline.
“This didn’t happen because we had unlimited resources. We certainly didn’t,” Sherrod said. “We pinched a lot of pennies to get both of these projects done without overburdening taxpayers. We knew we had to do something because at the end of the day, public safety is one of those things you simply have to invest in, and we believed our citizens and our first responders deserved something better than what they had. With leaders of communities across Georgia in the room when GCCMA presented the award and with the organization’s reach and ability to disseminate the information and resources we shared through the application process, hopefully something about our approach can help another rural county facing similar challenges, too.”
The Emanuel County Board of Commissioners governs Emanuel County, focusing on legislative and administrative responsibilities. Comprised of representatives from five districts, the board oversees policies and programs that impact local development, budgeting, and public services. Commissioners work collectively to ensure fiscal responsibility and address community needs, collaborating with other county departments and agencies. They are committed to supporting economic growth, public safety, and community well-being across Emanuel County.
For more information about the commissioners and for the latest from the county government, visit 124 North Main Street in Swainsboro; call 478-237-3881; follow us on Facebook; or visit www.emanuelco-ga.gov.
