New 911 Operations center getting closer to completion
Polk County’s 911 Operations Center is getting closer to completion now that roofing is done, walls are up inside and out, and contractors work to install wiring and more within the new facility.
The addition to the Polk County Emergency Management building within the county’s pub- lic safety complex at the intersection of Highway 278 and the Highway 27 bypass is getting closer to being done, according to County Manager Matt Denton.
He said that work started over the summer has sped forward now that framing within the inside of the structure, the roof line being matched to the old building, and even a base coat of paint is on the block walls, with the whole of the structure set to get a fresh coat of paint to match in the coming weeks.
As part of cost saving measures on construction, IT director David Smith and his assistant will be handling all of the networking cable running as construction work continues, Denton explained.
He said this was one of several items changed from the original bid in order to save the county money.
The 911 Operations Center addition is expected to cost under $600,000 by the time everything is ordered and construction is com- pleted, but costs were well over what was initially expected by county officials.
As previously reported, some of those items couldn’t be helped. Take the Halo System, which is a double copper wire strung around the building in the ground and air, staked down to several places in the ground to prevent damage from lightning strikes on sensitive electronics.
That item’s cost was scaled back, but still came in at $18,000, and that was cut down from $30,000.
There’s also the $50,000 battery backup system needed to power the whole command operations in case of power failure before a backup generator kicks in. It also acts to regulate the power supply and keep it steady.
There’s raised flooring for easier installation of cabling and repairs, and keyless entry systems, and a variety of equipment needed that isn’t being bought separately to make everything run smoothly.
Denton said too that their estimates of square footage price when initially laying out the groundwork for funding of the new 911 center was based on larger facilities, where the price was around $185 a square foot for a 10,000 square foot facility, instead of the $242.80 a square foot quoted by J.H. Benefield Construction.
Equipment within the facility itself is also expensive, requiring upgrades to keep up with technology. New recording systems to keep copies of all calls to 911, new computer aided dispatch systems, new computer consoles with built-in features are just some of the items that will be installed once the new addition to the Emergency Management building is completed in the fall.
Denton said it will likely be late fall before all construction work is done and equipment can be installed, then operations will have to shift toward training personnel on the new systems eventually leading to a changeover in early 2017.
“The building has to be completely finished before we can begin installing equipment and software,” he said.
Once the move is completed, the 911 operations office next to the Department of Driver Services building will have the IT department in one area.
“We have some ideas for what to do with the front part of the building, where 911 currently occupies the space,” hesaid. “We’ve talked about moving the 4-H Extension office, but no final decisions have been made yet.”
He said no other plans have yet been generated for what to do with the 911 operations office.