MADISON TOWNSHIP — Richland County will “publicly unveil” its newly remodeled $1 million 9-1-1 dispatch center inside the Peoples Community Center.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony is planned Wednesday at 11 a.m., followed by a televised virtual tour of the new facility, Richland County Commissioner Tony Vero said.
It’s not an event open to the general public, culminating a project first approved by commissioners in August 2019.
“We will broadcast it live on WMFD-TV,” Vero said, “to limit the number of people who would gather in-person during the pandemic.
“It’s our way of showing what the taxpayers paid for without gathering in a cluster during COVID-19.”
Commissioners said the center has already been operating in its new facility and with the new equipment.
“I was there Friday afternoon and it was clicking,” Commissioner Cliff Mears said.
The work includes remodeling two rooms in the building for record keeping, remodeling and revamping the primary entrance to the building (formerly a loading dock), safeguarding eight windows near the dispatch center and replacing two 15-year-old HVAC units on the center’s roof.
It also includes new data terminals, software and data lines.
Funding for the project came from the county’s capital funds, wireless surcharge dollars received by the sheriff’s department and also a federal grant being passed through the state.
At the time the plan was approved, officials said the current hardware/software package was 8 years old and needed to be replaced, adding the new equipment will allow for text messages to 9-1-1 and also video messaging in the future.
Commissioners acquired the Peoples Community Center in 2000 for $1 from then-Ashland Samaritan Hospital and have spent about $2.5 million in improvements over the two last two decades.
They have also said the relocation and renovation demonstrate a long-term commitment to the facility at 597 Park Ave. East.
When the project was announced, Richland County Sheriff’s Office Capt. Jim Sweat said the 9-1-1 dispatch center was handling more than three times the number of calls for which it was originally designed.
The former center with four terminals and the software it utilized was designed to handle about 50,000 calls annually. The center is averaging about 170,000 per year now.
“First and foremost, (there is) no other public safety arm or organization that reaches every single resident in Richland County,” Sweat said in 2019. “Richland County 9-1-1 is the only public safety aspect that does that.
“We answer every 911 call that is made by a cell phone for the entire county (including all municipalities, villages and townships),” Sweat said. “More than 90 percent of our calls are wireless calls.”
