County eyes new 911 location
By Steve Herring
Published in News on April 10, 2015 1:46 PM
Wayne County's new 911 call center will need to be in a more secure location -- removed both in distance from the backup call center as well as from the same electrical power grid they now share.
There have even been discussions with Greene County officials concerning a shared regional approach between the two counties.
The 911 center project is the outgrowth of a study by Mission Critical consultants on the center's staffing and facility needs.
The study recommended that the county either expand the current center or build a new one to add more telecommunicators to handle the increased volume of calls.
Little can be done until Wayne County learns whether the state 911 board will approve its grant request for the project. It will be between mid May and late June before the county knows if it will be funded.
"Then we will move forward with it," County Manager George Wood told Wayne County commissioners during their Tuesday morning session.
However, a committee made up of Wood, Assistant County Manager Tommy Burns, Fire Marshal Bryan Taylor, purchasing manager Noelle Woods and commission Chairman Wayne Aycock has interviewed architectural firms that have experience in designing 911 centers.
The committee recommended that the county hire the firm of Stewart, Cooper and Newell of Gastonia and to allow Wood to negotiate the contract with the company.
"In talking to all five firms, who had seen the current facility, they convinced us an expansion (of the existing center) within the Jeffreys Building was not feasible, and further presented some site problems as well," Wood said. "Given that, we are recommending that we make the scope of work for a new facility only, not a possible renovation.
"In discussing the grant process with Phil Penny of Mission Critical, we were informed that the architect cannot be employed until we receive the grant. Consequently, I am recommending that you authorize me to negotiate with the recommended architect, but we would not bring you back a contract until, and unless, we receive the grant."
Commissioners unanimously approved the recommendations.
"We haven't looked at any locations yet, but we have some in mind," Wood said. "We did have a second meeting with Greene County so we are waiting to hear back from them on a couple of things there. How deep that interest is may play into the decision of location, too.
"The problem that we have right now is that as you know our backup is at the Board of Elections. They (center sites) are too close together. The other thing is that they are on the same electrical circuit. We want to be far enough away that we have that distance separation so that if we did have a tornado, hurricane or whatever that we have a better chance of one of the two facilities surviving."
It also would be better to have them on different electrical circuits, he said.
"You will have emergency generators, but obviously you would prefer to stay on regular power," Wood said.
Also a new facility would allow the county to have secure, fenced-in parking for employees. Another advantage would be more security at the facility to lessen the chance of someone being able to get too close to the facility and maybe ramming a vehicle into it, he said.
"The bottom line is we are not exactly sure where it would go, but we know there are certain parameters that we are looking at," Wood said.
Commissioner Joe Daughtery asked if his understanding was correct that most of the cost would be covered by the 911 grant.
That is correct and officials with Mission Critical are submitting the application on behalf of the county, Wood said.
"George, even though we apply for a grant there is still going to be some county money that has got to go into this. Is that correct?" Commissioner Ray Mayo said. "Do you have any idea how much?"
It will depend on the grant amount, Wood said. The state 911 board could fund all of it, or only part of it, he said.
Wood reminded commissioners that the county has built up a "fairly good balance" in its 911 fund that is separate from the state grant.
"The state is so restrictive on those funds that we have built it up," he said. "It is limited to use on what you can do inside the building. So what we may do if the grant comes back and doesn't fully cover it, then we will ask them can we release some of that fund because otherwise all they (state) is going to do is bleed it down over a series of years. They, in fact, are doing that now.
"I think at one point we had a (911) fund balance of about $1.8 million. What they are doing is they are giving us roughly $300,000 less (annually) for our operating budget than what we need. What they are doing is now they want to take that (balance) to $1.5 million, $1.2 million, $900,000. My argument is if they are going to take it over a period of five years let's just ask them if can put it into the building if that is what we need to do, because they are going to grab it."
The state might prefer allowing the county to use the money that way because it would mean the grant would not have to be as much, Wood said.