Martin Emergency Center nears completion
By Jason Schultz
Palm Beach Post (Florida)
Copyright 2007 The Palm Beach Newspapers, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
STUART, Fla. — It is covered by a concrete-and-steel shell about 9 inches thick and has metal shutters that can clamp down on its few windows with the flip of a switch.
And to Martin County emergency officials, it looks like Shangri-la.
“I finally got an office window. It only took me 27 years,” said county Emergency Management Director Keith Holman, describing the $16.9 million emergency operations center.
The 70,000-square-foot building, which will house emergency services and the administrative offices for the sheriff’s office and fire rescue department, is nearly complete, said Randall Saumier, chief of the county’s construction office during a tour of the building Monday.
“We’re on the last leg,” said Carl Hoenes, project manager for the county. “I’ve been looking at it on paper for the last year. It looks better than I expected.”
The two-story building is designed to withstand up to 190 mph winds and is equipped with two large air conditioners and a room-sized generator to keep the lights on and phone lines open during any storm, Hoenes said.
By Monday, workers had brought in furniture and were stringing more than 100 miles of blue, yellow and gray computer wiring that will keep all the fire and sheriff’s office 911 dispatchers operating.
The building will replace the existing 2,500-square-foot emergency operations center, a small concrete bunker covered by a hill on Salerno Road, that the county has been using since the 1970s. Holman said he has been working there since 1980.
The 13,000 square feet allotted for emergency operations in the new building, as well as bunks for sleeping and a kitchen, will all make his job much easier during a hurricane, he said.
“The added space is certainly going to enhance our abilities plus reduce the irritability of having 100 people jammed into a small building,” Holman said.
The building is also built to accommodate more dispatchers and emergency workers in the future. It has space for 69 desks in the emergency operations center instead of the 48 spaces at the existing center. It also has space for 24 fire and sheriff’s 911 dispatchers, four more than the county currently employs.
Sheriff Bob Crowder, his administrative personnel and detectives will be one the first floor. From 1996 to 2004, they worked from mobile homes on the site until they were destroyed by hurricanes.
“It will be very nice for everyone to have the necessary amount of office space to get their work done without having to set up desks in closets and storage areas,” said Crowder. “Having decent facilities shows more respect to the public and shows proper regard to our employees. Many of our employees spend more time at work than they do in their own homes.”
The multimillion-dollar digs may help the county postpone having to build space for its other officials a little while longer. Officials have long complained about overcrowding at the existing administrative complex but struggled to find the money to build a new one. Saumier said that fire rescue administrators will be moving out of that complex and their offices can be reused to solve some space problems.
The old center will probably become space for information technology services department, Holman said. A garage for crime scene investigations vehicles will allow the sheriff’s office to use its old garage for storage, Saumier said.
All the new space and improved hurricane security does come at a price. The county borrowed $9.3 million to complete the building faster, said Assistant County Administrator Taryn Kryzda. The county will use most of its public building impact fees paid by developers to pay back that debt for at least the next 10 years, she said.
U.S. Rep. Tim Mahoney, D-Palm Beach Gardens, plans to tour the new building today, Saumier said. The 911 dispatchers and emergency services personnel will begin moving in later this month and everybody else will be moved in by June 1, Saumier said.