County looking at 911 options
By Steve Herring
Published in News on January 20, 2016 1:46 PM
There are five building options for a new 911 call center that Wayne County commissioners want to explore before continuing with the project.
Three involve renovations of existing buildings, and two would require new construction.
All five are on county-owned property at or near the county's facilities building near the old Wayne Community College campus.
Commissioners Tuesday morning authorized County Manager George Wood to negotiate a contract with Stewart, Cooper and Newell of Gastonia to study the five options and to design whichever one is selected by the board.
The contract would be brought back to the board for final approval.
It is similar to when the county hired Mosley Architects to design the new satellite jail, Wood said.
"I think we had three sites (for the jail)," he said. "One at that point was the old prison. Then we had two sites that the county was looking at. What we would like to do here is have them look at all five."
The commission's Facilities Committee along with staff came up with the five options:
* Renovate two buildings in front of the facilities office and possibly add on to the buildings.
* Renovate the facilities office and move that department elsewhere.
* Renovate the existing brick building at the communications tower site.
* Build a new building behind the animal shelter.
* Build near the communications tower.
"As you all know we are facing a (state) July 1 deadline to have a backup PSAP (public-safety answering point or call center)," Wood said. "But our problem is we need a new PSAP. But by putting it in that location there would be enough separation (from the existing call center) that the current one would serve as our backup.
"Under state law, as long as we are making progress toward building it, we don't have to be through by July 1. So by moving forward with the architect we would be in compliance with that and moving forward with dealing with the overcrowded 911 center we have."
The existing center has six consoles. There is no room to expand, and renovating the building to allow for expansion is not practical, Wood said.
The 911 center has been an issue for some time following a study by Mission Critical consultants on staffing and facility needs.
The consultants recommended that the county either expand its current center or build a new one to add more telecommunicators to handle an increased call volume.
"So as calls go up, if we don't move forward, we are going to be in a fairly bad predicament," Wood said.
The board has done a good job of building for the future, Commissioner Wayne Aycock said. That is true as well for the proposed 911 center, he said.
Commissioner Ed Cromartie asked if any consideration had been given to the county-owned property in the Mount Olive Industrial Park.
Cromartie said he also recalled that there had been discussions about a possible partnership with Greene County.
There does not have to be that much separation between the two centers, Wood said.
The separation is needed so that both centers are on different electrical and phone circuits, he said. Also, Mount Olive is too far to be considered, Wood said.
Being close to an existing tower will save "quite a bit of money," Wood said.
"The other criteria it meets, you will notice that all of these are near the tower site," Wood said. "That was one of the issues, if you recall, when we were looking at the property on Cashwell (Drive). With this we won't need an additional tower of great height. We will need a small tower, but it won't be anything like we were looking at."
The tower is close to all five sites and is adjacent to two of the sites, Wood said.
Also, the possible partnership with Greene County "fizzled," he said.
The county's $39 million five-year capital improvement plan includes $6.7 million for a 911E call center.
The county has hoped to use a grant from the state 911 system to help pay for the project. But the grant application was not approved.
The county could apply again, but the state is now focusing on regional centers, Wood said.
Chairman Joe Daughtery said that using local funds means that the building does not have to adhere to all of the state standards tied to the grant. For example, grant funding would have required expensive bulletproof glass across the building, he said.
Commissioners suggested lobbying legislators to lobby for legislation that would allow the county to use its 911 reserves for "brick and mortar" as well as the already allowable equipment needed to receive a call at the center.