Rogers approves contracts

Police dispatch center moves to design stage

ROGERS — The Police Department will begin discussing designs for a dispatch center now that the project has City Council approval, the police chief said.

The center is on the second floor of its building on South Dixieland Road.

“It’s basically cased in glass,” Police Chief Hayes Minor said.

The center has to be evacuated when there’s severe weather or a security threat.

“They go from this multimillion-dollar, high-tech, full-of-tools room into an old converted jail cell with a radio by the telephone, so they’re without the tools that the community relies on to get the help that they need,” Minor said. “So it’s been in our long-range plan for a number of years to get them a facility that is hardened against storms and is able to be powered in the event of power failure and allows the phones to continue to be answered instead of being transferred to another law enforcement agency.”

The City Council on Tuesday approved two contracts related to the center, one with Caddell Construction Co. for construction management services, and one with Core Architects Inc. for design services.

The center is to be paid for using money from the $299.5 million bond issue voters approved in August. The bond issue included $11.5 million for the Police Department.

The department has 24 dispatchers and one 911 coordinator who oversees the dispatchers, Minor said.

There isn’t a set date for when the center is expected to be completed, but Minor said he would like to see it finished within a year and a half.

The council also voted to allow the Rogers Executive Airport to spend more than $82,000 to reconstruct an aircraft taxiway.

The project will include demolishing a dilapidated hangar and making room for new hangars, said David Krutsch, airport manager.

“I think it’s the oldest building remaining on the airport,” Krutsch said. “It was originally built in about 1981.”

The taxiway isn’t only in need of reconstruction, but doesn’t meet several Federal Aviation Administration design standards. Those standards will be met when the work is completed, he said.

Both items passed unanimously with council member Marge Wolf absent from the meeting.