911 call center plans advance
By Steve Herring
Published in News on July 22, 2016 1:46 PM
Wayne County commissioners are proceeding with plans to build an approximately $3.82 million 911 center on an 18.7-acre vacant lot between the county Facilities Services Office and the animal shelter.
The board also had been considering renovating an existing building, but scrapped that idea based on a study by Stewart, Cooper Newell Architects.
The board this week unanimously approved Commissioner John Bell's motion to authorize County Manager George Wood and County Attorney Parker to negotiate a design contract with Stewart, Cooper Newell Architects.
The firm looked at five options. Three involved renovations, and two looked at new buildings.
"When you look at the three existing facilities that are out there, two of them are currently occupied," Jim Stumbo with Stewart, Cooper Newell Architects told commissioners at the meeting. "One of them with mostly storage, one with the offices of facilities services. The other is pretty much a bay for repair and storage for different equipment for facility services.
"All of these buildings were built back in the '60s. At the time they were built the codes were substantially different than they are today. So what you have are three facilities that are in reasonably good repair, but don't meet the current codes that are required to build this new structure."
The new structure is going to be a 911 center which building codes looks at as a type 4 building, or essential facility, he said.
"Once I put an essential facility into that existing structure, I then have to bring that existing structure up to the current code," Stumbo said. "If you think about how they built a concrete block wall back the '60s, they didn't build it like they do today.
"So pretty much what I will end up doing is building a new structural system internal to the existing walls to provide the seismic and wind bracing to the existing walls."
A new roof that meets the current code would be required as well.
"So I pretty much have an entirely new building other than the skin of the (old) building," Stumbo said. "It is not a cheap thing to think about."
Economically it makes more sense for a new building on a vacant piece of property, he said.
It also make sense from a functionality standpoint, he said.
"As soon as we take the needs of a 911 center and try to force them into the existing very narrow structures that you have out there -- they are 26 feet wide -- you are going to start giving up some functionality in how the building needs to function to meet the needs of a 911 center," he said.
Commissioner Ed Cromartie asked Stumbo what was his top reason for not wanting to use an existing facility.
Cromartie said the board favors, when possible, using what it has instead of building new.
"The main one would be the type of construction and what it would take to bring that construction up to current codes that could then house the 911 center," Stumbo said. "I have noting against using an existing structure.
"We have done that in Rock Hill, S.C. We used an existing building for a 911 center. We did it Morehead City. We have done it and will continue to do it where it is appropriate. These (Wayne County) facilities, I don't feel are appropriate to upgrade to a 911 center. It just does not make economic or functional sense."
The 911 center has been an issue for some time following a study by consultants with Mission Critical on staffing and facility needs at the center.
The consultants recommended that the county either expand its current center or build a new one to add more telecommunications to handle an increased volume of calls.