Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Police, fire projects progress
Ceremony skipped for Rogers emergency dispatch center
ROGERS — Covid-19 hasn’t slowed construction on two city projects.
Site work has begun for the Police Department’s emergency dispatch center, Police Chief Hayes Minor said.
The city didn’t have a groundbreaking for the building this spring because of the pandemic, he said.
Work on the project was slightly delayed because of weather, but not the pandemic, Minor said.
“I imagine in the next couple of weeks, there will be a flurry of activity,” Minor said of the construction.
The dispatch center is planned to be a 10,400-squarefoot building on South Dixieland Road next to the Police Department. Voters approved the project in 2018 as part of a nearly $300 million bond issue, which included $11.5 million for the Police Department.
The estimated cost to build the center is $6.5 million, Minor said.
The existing dispatch center is on the department building’s second floor.
Minor has said 24 dispatchers and one 911 coordinator work in the center, which has to be evacuated when there’s severe weather or a security threat. The new center will allow phones to continue to be answered instead of being transferred to another law enforcement agency.
The new building will also include a multipurpose room for tactical training, a training room, offices, a garage and support facilities, according to the city’s website.
Minor said Monday the target date to complete the center is March.
Meanwhile, construction on another bond issue project is wrapping up.
Fire Station No. 8 across from the Shadow Valley subdivision on the city’s west side should be finished in late summer, Fire Chief Tom Jenkins said Tuesday.
Covid-19 hasn’t affected the project, although it was delayed from its original expected completion date, December 2019, because construction was in conjunction with the extension of Pleasant Grove Road.
The extension, which is intended to make it easier to get to west Rogers, will add about a mile to Pleasant Grove Road to fill in the missing chunk between Arkansas 112 and Rainbow Road. Road work was delayed because utilities had to be moved, Lance Jobe, city engineer, has said.
The city has already hired firefighters and purchased equipment needed for the station.
The new firefighters are working in other stations but will immediately begin working at the new station once the the 13,000-square-foot building is complete, Jenkins said.
The city received a $1.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to pay 75% of the 12 new firefighters’ salaries and benefits for three years. The city will pay the remaining 25% and all of the salaries and benefits after the grant money is spent.
The fire station is expected to cost $3.25 million. The 2018 bond issue included $9.5 million for the Fire Department.