911 Center Opening

Daily Interlake Newspaper - June 10, 2010

From left, Flathead County Commissioner Joe Brenneman, Whitefish City Councilman Turner Askew, Columbia Falls City Councilman Mike Shepard and former Office of Emergency Services Director Mark Peck cut a ribbon signifying the opening of the county’s new consolidated 911 center Wednesday evening. The Flathead 911 Emergency Communications Center will begin dispatching calls at 7 a.m. June 15.

New 911 center ready to open

Flathead County’s new consolidated 911 center will be the site of a reception Wednesday evening to celebrate going live next week.

The grand opening, hosted by Glacier Bank, kicks off with a ribbon-cutting at 6 p.m. and runs until 8 p.m. It is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be available. Valley Chamber of Commerce members are invited to attend beginning at 4 p.m.

Office of Emergency Services personnel, past and current 911 board members, Type 3 volunteer team members, the All Hazard Response Team and others are expected to be on hand to demonstrate some of the new technology, answer questions and give tours of the new building and the mobile command center, built by Nomad Global Communication Solutions for around $300,000.

Dispatchers will begin dispatching calls out of the center at 7 a.m. on June 15, according to Juanita Nelson, administration financial support specialist for the new center.

The center is located at 625 Timberwolf Parkway in northwest Kalispell near the Forest Service and Department of Natural Resources and Conservation buildings.

The 911 center will merge the county’s four emergency dispatch centers into one facility, contain the new emergency operations headquarters for Flathead County and serve as a depot for county emergency equipment.

To make sure the transition goes smoothly the morning of June 15, supervisors will remain at each of the old dispatch centers for the first hour or so, according to Scott Sampey, who took over as director of the Office of Emergency Services in April.

This will just be a temporary backup, he said, adding that all dispatchers should be at the new center after the first day.

A console will remain at the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office to serve as a backup in addition to the mobile command center, according to 911 Center Manager Michelene Provo.

Dispatchers from Whitefish, Columbia Falls and Kalispell police departments have been training with Flathead County Sheriff’s Office dispatchers for the last few months, learning new procedures and an increasing volume of calls, along with a new computer system and how to handle fire and emergency medical service calls.

They also must learn new policies, since they will be working under the Office of Emergency Services at the new center.

“It’s a huge undertaking,” Provo said. “So far it’s going well, we’re sticking to the plan. Everything is on track so far.”

Provo said 29 dispatchers will be employed at the new center, including four lead dispatchers and four supervisors. The building will employ 38 people, including support staffers and Office of Emergency Services personnel.

Administrators already are working in the state-of-the-art, 11,800-square-foot facility built by Swank Enterprises that boasts reinforced masonry block walls, bullet-proof and blast-resistant windows and security fencing and gates.

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 911 center budget is still within the $6.9 million budget for land costs, impact fees, design fees, furnishings and advanced communications equipment.

Some additional equipment needs to be ordered, said Sampey, but he 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.