Lebanon County’s new $31.7 million 911 Center is tentatively set to be fully operational by the end of July.
That news was shared with LebTown during an exclusive center tour and interview with Bob Dowd, director of the county’s Department of Emergency Services, County Commissioners Bob Phillips and Jo Ellen Litz, and county administrator Jamie Wolgemuth. (Commissioner Mike Kuhn was unable to attend.)
911 Center employees will be the last DES personnel to move to the site. Administrative staff transferred in April and hazmat and other operations relocated in May.
Dowd gave one caveat for the 911 operational date announcement.
“We’re still waiting on generators. That’s been a big holdup,” said Dowd. “And unfortunately, there’s just nothing I can do to fake that. You can’t risk a power outage for something like 911.”
These issues are out of the county’s control but may be expected given the necessity of having a system of this magnitude that contains built-in redundancies to ensure critical emergency operations continue without any loss of service.
The new facility, which also houses three other county emergency operations, is located at 1805 Cornwall Road in North Cornwall Township.
“The issue is the gas pressure for the generators was too low. We had to have UGI come adjust that and that required us to install some additional regulators,” Dowd said in late June. “It’s just, you know, coordination. So that was fixed at the beginning of this week.”
He said the next step will be testing and then configuring the generator control system, which were scheduled to occur in late June.
“Our system is fully functional as it is right now. Obviously we want (the dispatchers) here as soon as possible,” said Dowd. “But you can’t jump the gun on that. Everything that’s here right now is going to stay in power. Until the generators are running and the control system is configured, I am not confident on setting an actual move-in date.”
The new DES facility is as close to being completed as possible, added Dowd. The complex contains two buildings that are 41,000 square feet and 19,000 square feet, respectively, and a helipad.
“Most of the construction work is done. We are in the end stages of the punch list is probably the best way to frame that,” he said. “Some touch-up paint here, a couple little things here and there that need to be fixed, some doors that need to be adjusted so they close in such a way that they don’t squeak. Just very, very minor things. Outside of the electrical, the building is complete. It’s functional.”
Read More: Local group works to place new Lebanon County First Responders Memorial at planned County 911 Center
The delay in the installation of the generator is the latest wrinkle in a project that has had to overcome other adversities. Prior issues involved supply chain difficulties during the pandemic and the failed testing of a critical electrical component.
Nearly four years later, all staff except the 911 dispatchers are working from the new center. The helipad located between the main building and Cornwall Road has also “taken off” and is in use.
Dowd said the DES complex is the new home for four departments: 911, emergency preparedness, emergency management, which includes hazmat, water rescue and the agency’s drones, and technical services, which involves all technology used by first responders. The main building contains 22 offices, with room to grow as the county’s population increases.
Hazmat equipment and gear are housed to the rear of the property in a 10-door bay, 19,000-square-foot building that resembles a firehouse along with a plethora of personal protective equipment that’s stored in that building. Other DES departments are located within the main building throughout the first floor.
Dowd and the commissioners have said and reiterated during the tour that the center is meant to last for at least 50 years, with future revisions being made as needed to keep the facility up-to-date. Commissioner Phillips said, “We have a 25-year payment plan and a 50-year building.”
“It should last twice as long as it takes to pay for it,” said Dowd. “When I say ‘last,’ the building is built well enough to last far beyond that but it’s very difficult to know exactly what this is going to look like in 50 years or the county’s size by then. So the assumption is that in 50 years you might need to change the footprint of this building but the bones (infrastructure) of this building will be fine.”
The timing of the building’s financing in 2021 was also critical, noted Phillips.
“I think we have to be very proud of the team that put it all together and the fact that we were able to get two votes to fund the bonding, a bond issue for this thing to get it across the finish line financially,” said Phillips. “And I don’t think, it shouldn’t escape anyone, it’s a little bit in the weeds, but the fact that the timing was perfect for the funding of this project.”
The project officially began with the purchase of 10 acres for $1.3 million in October 2020.
Read More: Commissioners vote to acquire 10 acres in North Cornwall for 911 Center
Wolgemuth said the buildings were funded via a $42.5 million, 25-year bond with a 2.5 percent average interest rate. The bond was floated in December 2021, construction bids were awarded that same month, and construction began immediately since there was no snow on the ground and conditions were favorable, recalled Wolgemuth.
“Basically, we got 2.5 percent for 25 years because of our bond rating and because of our financial strength going into this thing. So all those planets were aligned properly for us to be able to fund this project,” said Phillips. “And yes, it’s going to provide us with a much safer Lebanon County, ultimately.“
Read More: Construction underway at new 911 Center in North Cornwall Township
As part of the project cost, the county earmarked about $1.5 million to address change orders that would occur during the project. Dowd said the county has spent about $895,000 in change orders during the 3.5-year-long construction project, coming under budget by over $500,000.
“We did a good job of making sure everything was taken care of during the engineering and design phase. Your change order load is directly proportional to your engineering, the quality of your engineering,” he said. “We made sure we engaged engineers and design teams that had experience building this type of structure because they know exactly what to look out for, and that paid off in dividends in the end.”
Commissioner Litz said a long lifespan for the center was a key component for her in the county constructing the complex.
“For me, it is the longevity,” said Litz. “To see it come to fruition while I’m still in office is a joy and a pleasure, and I’m very thankful with Bob at the helm. He’s done a stellar job of following and guiding all the details to make sure it’s done right the first time.”
Dowd said the facility was designed to serve many purposes.
“This new building meets the industry standard for best practices for redundancies,” he said. “The facility we’re in now is the courthouse, and not that the courthouse is in any way, shape or form a vulnerable structure but it wasn’t designed to be a 911 Center or emergency services facility. This is.”
Consolidation of emergency services is also a plus as the county’s population continues to grow. Previously, some emergency service operations were scattered around Lebanon city but are now centralized.
“The county is growing and this facility was intended to accommodate that growth from an emergency services standpoint,” said Dowd. “It checks boxes that were missing entirely. The classroom we’re sitting in right now gets used all the time. It’s something that did not exist previously in the public safety world in Lebanon County.”
The main building contains three classrooms, 22 offices, the 911 call center and an emergency ops center for larger emergencies. There’s one large classroom that can accommodate about 100 individuals and two adjacent classrooms with a retractable wall that can turn those two smaller spaces into a larger one. Those two spaces can host about 35 to 40 people each.
The larger room is designed to host press conferences during a natural disaster in Lebanon County or other emergencies that require the dissemination of information to the general public via the press. The space’s primary use, however, will be to fulfill the continuing educational needs of local first responders and, when appropriate, from other county first responders as well.
“If you had wanted to attend a class you had to go to Lancaster or one of the other neighboring counties that have facilities where you can attend class. Now we’re able to bring training in-house, we’re able to do stuff here,” added Dowd, who noted Lebanon County will be added to the rotating schedule for continuing first responder education.
The new center will also have continuity of government functionality if an event happened that necessitated moving essential county government services from the courthouse on South 8th Street to the DES complex.
“This building you’re sitting in is a room with all these floor boxes and inside these floor boxes is enough power and networking that we can set up as many cubicles and offices as we need in here to accommodate long-term continuity of operations for Lebanon County government should something major occur to the courthouse,” said Dowd.
Wolgemuth noted that additional space for that potentiality was created purposefully so that county government could continue to function in an emergency.
“That’s an important component of this that’s emphasized at the state and federal levels that there’s a continuity of government plan,” said Wolgemuth. “At one time, a long time ago, our continuity of government plan was to go and occupy a portion of Cedar Haven Nursing Home. Fortunately, we never had to figure out how that would or would not work. But this facility replaces that role now.”
The county has the ability to use stand-up phone lines and house necessary county employees in a makeshift environment.
“It wouldn’t be everyone who’s working in the courthouse. It would be a skeleton crew that keeps county functions going,” said Wolgemuth. “And that is part of the reason we have as much space as we have here. It is to accommodate that. It could be viewed, I guess, as the cliché goes, a church for Easter Sunday, but that’s exactly what it is.”
Having access to that functionality strengthens Lebanon County’s emergency response and preparedness, he added. “That’s what emergency preparation is all about. You prepare for things that you may never face but you have to be ready.”
Dowd emphasized that doesn’t mean those spaces will only be used for those situations.
“The building is malleable. It is that space that Jamie’s talking about where we can do all these things,” said Dowd. “You don’t want that space to sit idle because that’s just inefficient. So the fact that it’s used on a regular basis for classes and public safety programs is what you want. To be valuable to more than just one thing, and everything in this building is.”
Continuing education for first responders has already and will continue to be a major focus in the center’s classrooms now that nearly all of the building has functionality.
The day LebTown toured there was an Emergency Medical Dispatch program being conducted in a classroom. Other programs include a multi-day system training focusing on stress management, numerous law enforcement officer training sessions and an upcoming training day on defensive driving. That program will not only be for Lebanon County employees but also for those from three other nearby counties.
The county has also already enhanced its emergency preparedness by conducting tabletop exercises at the center.
“We just started and we will continue to regularly exercise this building since a lot of new functionality comes with it,” said Dowd. “A lot of just the available space really changes your efficiency and your workflows when you’re trying to manage emergencies. In the past, trying to spread out functions over the basement of the courthouse and just any room you can kind of find available was not great. Now we’ve got it designed to accommodate that.”
The county recently ran a multi-faceted emergency simulation scenario from the center featuring a major weather event exacerbated by a train derailment and multiple vehicle accidents.
“Our purpose in the public safety model is to support our local first responders. That’s what we do,” said Dowd. “So when something grows outside of their capabilities or they start to need resources from us or from the state level or we are trying to distribute resources countywide, now that’s where we step in and start managing (things like) this. Our job is not to be the ones out there fighting the fire, so to speak.”
Dowd noted there are some situations where DES does have “boots on the ground” but most times their role is to support first responders.
“So a good example is the I-78 car accident,” added Dowd. “That’s something that we would spin up because we have stripped everything of EMS resources and now we need to figure out what’s happening next. Where we’re getting those resources from, how we’re going to backfill the rest of the county and maintain that continuity of operations from the public safety standpoint.”
The department most familiar to the general public and the heart of DES operations is its 911 call center, which is the one service that touches the lives of all county residents.
Dowd said moving the 911 dispatchers from a space with no windows at the courthouse to a site that has them will improve their mental well-being while also providing a view of current weather conditions.
“The benefits are that the people who have to occupy this space will feel better when they are able to look outside and see when it is night and when it isn’t, whether it’s raining or if it’s snowing,” he said during the facility tour. “My requirement was that this space didn’t have linear sights, so it is a credit to the architects. The dispatchers can see out without compromising the security of the building, which is wonderful and I think is a great thing.”
The call center will accommodate enough workers to ensure public safety with room to grow in the future.
Up to 12 dispatchers can work simultaneously in the call center, which also contains monitors located throughout the space so weather reports and other news can be followed during an emergency situation.
The 911 call center’s computers will be connected to the power once the generators are operational and then eventually the new radio system, which is slated to be fully functioning by the fall of 2025, according to Dowd.
A separate ops center enables emergency management operations to be administered for large-scale emergencies. Dowd said Lebanon County handled 7,800 emergency calls in a 48-hour period during Tropical Storm Lee in 2011, a number he said was “absurd.”
That ops center contains about 30 computerized stations for emergency and non-emergency personnel. They can monitor social media and facilitate communications for what Dowd said is “the fusion of services and situational awareness.”
An additional space, about the size of a large closet, has also been created for ham radio operators if the emergency communications system was to become inoperable.
“It has been a very expensive project but it was well-thought out and the end result, I believe, will serve the community very well for a long, long time,” said Commissioner Kuhn during a post-tour interview.
This project dovetails with the implementation of a new radio communications system and the construction of new towers across Lebanon County.
Read More: Lebanon County’s new emergency comms system moves foward
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