New 911 center set to open soon

Only details such as dry-erase paint on the walls remain before Flathead County’s consolidated 911 center is complete, but the facility won’t be fully operational until summer.

Construction on the high-tech facility in northwest Kalispell is almost finished, according to Mark Peck, project manager of the center.

The new center will handle current and future 911 needs, contain the new emergency operations headquarters for Flathead County and serve as a depot for the county’s emergency vans and trailers as well as other emergency equipment.

It also will merge the county’s four emergency dispatch centers into one facility.

A plan for transitioning the new dispatchers into the center is “90 percent complete,” according to Peck. At issue is maintaining complete functionality while making the move. He said dispatchers are still sorting out whether the change will be gradual or if it would make more sense to get everyone trained, then move them over to the new center all at once.

Dispatchers have formed a negotiating committee to iron out details about the move, which are still under negotiation. Tracy Finn, a county dispatcher, wouldn’t comment on specifics.

By March, Peck anticipates the new center will house Whitefish dispatchers, followed by dispatchers from Columbia Falls. Smaller areas will be easier to absorb, Peck said. Dispatchers from Kalispell and Flathead County will be last. According to Peck, 29 dispatchers will be employed at the new center, including four lead dispatchers and three supervisors. The building will employ 38 people, including support staff and Office of Emergency Services personnel.

Emergency Services personnel are expected to move in by March 1.

An equipment cache to house emergency vehicles and other equipment plus an open-area dispatch center with surrounding offices take up most of the center’s space.

The state-of-the-art 11,800-square-foot facility, built by Kalispell construction firm Swank Enterprises, boasts reinforced masonry block walls, bullet-proof and blast-resistant windows and security fencing and gates.

“This is, at minimum, a 25-year building,” Peck said. “We built this for the future as much as we could.”

He pointed out the non-load-bearing walls that can be removed to make room to incorporate as many as 14 dispatchers, up from the eight the building is able to house now. Normally six dispatchers will be on duty.

Under the dispatch area, a false floor conceals an array of fiber optic and power cables.

Dual generators back up all of the equipment and a state-of-the-art cooling system helps ensure the high-tech equipment doesn’t overheat, which could cause it to malfunction.

The center is built to withstand earthquakes, too.

With all the safeguards, “it’ll take a real bad day to put us out of commission,” Peck said.

Outside, among memorial benches and flower beds, will be a marble sculpture of the state of Montana that will list the names of fallen emergency responders.

A change in the subcontractor doing the building’s block masonry work caused an extension in the project’s original Dec. 15 completion date.

The 911 center budget is still within the $6.9 million dollar budget for land costs, impact fees, design fees, furnishings and advanced communications equipment. Since the building isn’t complete, Peck doesn’t have final numbers yet, but said the final tally should be around $6.1 million or a little less.

In November 2008, county voters narrowly approved a bond issue authorizing up to $6.9 million to build and equip the facility. The bond amount — and county taxes to pay off the bonds — will be adjusted downward to reflect the actual final cost of the project.

 A severe wind event in July 2007 during which, by Peck’s recollection, dispatchers received more than 300 calls in 45 minutes highlighted the need for a better communication system.

“That’s when it really hit me that we needed to consolidate. We can’t make good decisions if we don’t have good information,” said Peck of the need to ensure that those in command have the most up-to-the-minute information at their fingertips.

Also in the works is a mobile command center, expected to be up and running in the next couple of weeks, according to Will Schmautz, chief executive officer of Nomad Global Communication Solutions, the company in charge of building the mobile center.

A mobile facility could be used to respond to major incidents as well as backup should the primary facility fail. Schmautz estimated its final cost to be around $340,000, which is covered by the bond issue.