Name offered for dispatch center

The Board of Clark County Commissioners has begun discussions about naming the county’s new 9-1-1 communications center after a sheriff ’s deputy who was killed in the line of duty in 2011.

Commissioner Richard Lohnes suggested to the board that the county consider naming the new center after Clark County Sheriff ’s Deputy Suzanne Hopper.

Hopper, 40, was shot and killed on Jan. 1, 2011. She was responding to a call about shots fired into a camper at the Enon Beach Campground when she was ambushed by Michael Ferryman.

Dozens of officers and deputies from surrounding jurisdictions responded to the officer down call and engaged in a shootout with Ferryman, who fired upon anyone attempting to help Hopper.

“I was elected in 2010 and my first day in office was Jan. 1, 2011,” Lohnes said. “That was my very first day and I’ve been thinking about it and I think we should name the Clark County 9-1-1 Communications Center the Deputy Suzanne Hopper Center.”

Lohnes said he discussed the name with “a couple other prominent community members and business owners,” Clark County Sheriff

Deborah Burchett and Major Chris Clark, who will be one person in charge of running the center.

“I haven’t heard from anyone that it’s a bad idea,” Lohnes said.

The other commissioners agreed and the county will now look into options for making the naming possible.

“I think it’s a wonderful idea. It honors our first responders. It honors someone who gave their life in the line of duty and it’s really what quick dispatching is all about, making sure that we protect those who respond and those we are responding to. I think it’s a great connection,” Commissioner President Melanie Flax Wilt said.

The new $5 million 9-1-1 communications facility is being built on Home Road in the former Clark County Department of Job and Family Services Children’s Home. The current 3,800-square-foot facility will be repurposed as an office and training facility while a 3,300-square-foot addition will house all 9-1-1 dispatch operations.

The center will house dispatching services for all Clark County emergency management personnel excluding Green Twp.