New justice center ready to grow

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After two decades, the Dublin Justice Center was starting to feel like a bulging shirt ready to burst at its seams.

Its 70 police officers and 25 dispatchers outgrew their work space some time ago, considering the facility housed just 36 and eight of them, respectively, when it opened in 1993. Likewise, the city of Dublin’s population

has boomed from 20,600 to 45,600 residents.

After nearly two years of construction, the sprawling suburb now has a facility that’s expected to accommodate an expanding police force for 20 years.

“Growth is inevitable in Dublin, and now we’re ready for it,” Police Chief Heinz von Eckartsberg said.

On Thursday, he showed off a two-story, 16,000-square-foot addition to the justice center and renovation of its existing 43,000 square feet. About 100 people toured the building, which also houses Dublin’s court services and the Northwest Regional Emergency Communications Center. The center dispatches a handful of central Ohio agencies.

Tour guests perused police garb, explored an indoor firing range and checked out refurbished holding cells. Many remarked about the fresh “new building” smell as they browsed expanded offices and storage spaces.

“It’s spectacular,” said Brooke Farthing, 63, of Dublin.

The entire project cost $10.6 million, which will be paid off over 20 years, according to David Gaines, Dublin’s deputy director of finance.

About 7.5 percent of the project’s square footage was for expanding the Northwest Regional Emergency Communications Center, so 7.5 percent of the debt, or about $800,000, will be paid by the four agencies that use it. A funding formula based on each entity’s needs determines how much each will pay annually.

This year’s bill was about $59,100. Dublin Police and Washington Township Fire paid $32,700, Hilliard Police paid $21,500 and Norwich Fire paid $4,900.

Agencies that join the center in the future will help pay a portion of the building debt, too, Gaines said.

The city of Upper Arlington already has agreed to consolidate its fire and police dispatching with the center later this year. Fire services should be moved in November and police in December or early 2018, Upper Arlington spokeswoman Emma Speight said.

Six new dispatchers will be hired to accommodate the growth.

Dispatching consolidation is a trend in central Ohio and across the state, driven by a desire to share costs for new technology and the increasing number of emergency calls coming from cellphones. Dublin is one of just five Franklin County centers authorized to take 911 calls from cellphones, according to state law. The law will reduce the number of centers to four in 2018.

Though the Dublin Justice Center expansion would’ve been necessary regardless, conversations about the project in 2010 coincided with Hilliard and Norwich Township exploring the possibility of disbanding their dispatching services.

“We needed to decide whether being the provider of dispatching services for multiple area agencies was right for our community,” said Jay Somerville, director of the Northwest Regional Emergency Communications Center.

“Once we made that decision, it all fell into place and now we’re well-positioned and prepared to provide that service.”