Weber 911 dispatch center will expand at its current location
TUESDAY , AUGUST 02, 2016 - 4:35 PM
Image by: Supplied rendering/Tina Mathieu
An artist's rendering illustrates the new addition of the Weber Area Dispatch 911 and Emergency Services building to the Francom Public Safety Center.
OGDEN — After eight years of studies, negotiations and meetings, the Weber Area Dispatch 911 and Emergency Services will get a new building and remodel its space at its current location, county and city officials said.
Weber County Commission gave its approval on Tuesday, Aug. 2, to a resolution authorizing the Weber Area Dispatch 911 and Emergency Services District to create a local building authority, said Pleasant View City Mayor Toby Mileski.
Mileski is also the chairman of Weber Area 911 and Emergency Services District Board.
By creating a local building authority, the Weber area dispatch board will be able to bond to pay for a new building and the remodel of the current space at 2186 Lincoln Ave., Mileski said.
The new addition and the remodel of the current space will cost about $5 million, Mileski said.
Groundbreaking for the two-story 8,600-square-foot addition to Ogden’s Francom Public Safety Building is expected to happen the first part of October, said Tina Mathieu, executive director of the Weber Area Dispatch 911 and Emergency Services District.
Wadman Corporation will do the construction of the addition, and the new center is expected to be completed by late spring of 2017, she said.
After the new addition is built, Mathieu said, the 911 center and employees will move in and Wadman employees will gut the existing 3,300 square feet of the current center and remodel it. The remodeling work is expected to be completed by midsummer.
Ogden city is in the process of working out details to donate the building space the 911 center is currently using as well as the land next to the Francom building for the addition, said Ogden Management Services Director Gregg Buxton.
The 911 center has leased the space it currently uses since the building opened, said Weber County Commissioner James Ebert.
Having the space and land donated is what “sealed the deal,” Mathieu said.
“We get to stay where we are and we have the extra security we need, with the police officers and firefighters,” Mathieu said. “We are so appreciative to Ogden city.”
Mathieu said the current dispatch center is too small for the 75 employees who work there. Several offices have three people squished inside, and dispatchers sit so close to each other that there are times when a dispatcher handles a 911 call that “bleeds” over into the radio of another dispatcher talking to police officers or firefighters.
In February, the Weber-Morgan Health Board had considered leasing a portion of the health department’s building space to the Weber area 911 dispatch service.
Ebert said on Tuesday that as officials reviewed what was needed to move the 911 center to the second floor of the health department’s annex building, they were confronted with several problems.
First of all, much of the parking at the health department was already dedicated to clients of the health department’s Women, Infants & Children Program, Ebert said. Also, the health department made an agreement with Ogden city to allow businesses in the area to use the parking lot as well, Ebert said. The 911 center needs a secure parking lot.
The second problem was the cost of upgrading the building to meet the code for an emergency dispatch center, Ebert said.
As officials evaluated the possible move, they realized it would cost as much to upgrade the health department building to meet the needs of a dispatch center as it would to build an addition at its current site, plus do a remodel, Ebert said.
The new addition is expected to last 20 to 30 years, Ebert said.
You can reach reporter Loretta Park at lpark@standard.net or at 801-625-4252. Follow her on Twitter@LorettaPark SE or like her on Facebook.
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