“We’re working as hard as we can to update our infrastructure to get the 911 Communications Center operational as quickly as possible,” said Clark County Administrator Jennifer Hutchinson.
The $5 million, 7,000-square-foot facility will be used as a dispatch center, office and training facility managed by the Clark County Sheriff’s Office. The center will be located on Home Road in the former Clark County Department of Job and Family Services Children’s Home once it opens next year.
The new center for the Clark County Sheriff’s Office will dispatch services for the bulk of Clark County township emergency management personnel: nine of the ten townships in Clark County, with Green Twp. still in negotiations, have entered into partnerships with the sheriff’s office to utilize the dispatch center. Mad River Twp. signed a contract with the county earlier this year, Clark County public information officer Michael Cooper told the News-Sun.
The City of Springfield entered into an agreement with the county last year to use the dispatch center, and New Carlisle also entered into an agreement for the combined dispatch center.
A combined dispatch center for the county has been in talks for decades, and Clark County announced in 2017 that it would be building a the 911 dispatch center that will allow residents to text, send pictures and videos to dispatchers, and the center will put the county in accordance with Ohio’s Next Generation 911 requirement that calls for dispatch services to become more advanced.
At the dispatch center’s June 2020 groundbreaking, the projected completion date for building construction was November 2020; however, operations at the center were estimated to not begin until 2021 due to the length of time it will take to install new equipment.
There will be no disruptions in public safety during the delay, said Major Chris Clark of the Clark County Sheriff’s Office in the press release.
“We’ve got a great group of communications professionals who give their best each and every day to save lives in Clark County,” he said.
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