WATERLOO — Six years of efforts to combine emergency dispatching services in DeKalb County led to a groundbreaking ceremony Thursday morning.
By next winter, a new DeKalb County Central Communications building should be ready for dispatchers to move in. It will stand north of C.R. 34 and directly east of DeKalb High School.
The center will merge three dispatching services now operated by the county, Auburn and Garrett.
“Citizens call in some of the most dire and desperate moments of their lives, and we’re making the system work better for them,” and for emergency responders, said Ben Smaltz, DeKalb County Council president.
“Ultimately, everybody from citizens to emergency responders to dispatchers all are going to benefit from this. It’s been a long time coming,” Smaltz said.
“I’ve been involved in law enforcement for many, many years, and this is long overdue,” said Paul Brewer, who will direct the new communications center.
Smaltz said serious discussions about combining dispatch services began six years ago.
“The people who really got it going were the leaders who put aside their territories and what’s mine and what’s yours,” Smaltz said.
He gave credit to former Sheriff John Dennis and the mayors, police chiefs and fire chiefs of Auburn and Garrett.
“They all said, it’s not my territory, it’s the taxpayers’ territory, and what we’re doing now needs to be done better,” Smaltz said.
Since then, Brewer and others have worked hard in planning for the new center, Smaltz said.
Brewer said his leadership team will include Angela Grogg as deputy director and John Ober as information services specialist.
Architect Mark Van Allen of RQAW Corp. said the building will have six dispatching stations with room to add more. It will be equipped with a generator and uninterruptible power supply and will be designed to withstand an F3 tornado, Van Allen said. Its fire protection system will use inert gas to avoid damage to electronic equipment.
John Painter of the project’s construction management company, Construction Control, predicted the building will be ready to use by February 2012.
”We’re actually going to see a building out here soon, which means a lot to be able to visually see something here,” said Sheriff Don Lauer. “There’s been a lot of work that’s gone into it.”
The building and equipment will cost $6.8 million, compared to earlier expectations of $10 million, Smaltz said.
“We’re already coming in well under budget,” he said.