City hall ruled out as new dispatch center

    The search for a new home for the Washington County Dispatch Center got a little narrower Monday night as the E911 Board and Communications Commission agreed to take Washington?s city hall off the table. The board and commission held a joint meeting in the old library to discuss a new location for the dispatch center, and agreed that housing it in the current city hall would not work. The members of the board and commission agreed that the only two options left are putting the dispatch center on the second floor of the old library and constructing a brand new building at Orchard Hill.

    Commission Chairman Bob Shepherd said that city hall is too small to accommodate a new dispatch center and the offices of the police and fire departments.

    ?I don?t think we can find room at the old city hall,? said Shepherd. ?Everything would be squeezed together, which is what we?re trying to get away from now.?

    Sheriff Jerry Dunbar said that he preferred to have a building that would last a long time and be safe from the elements, and he didn?t think the old library was such a building. 

    Consulting Engineer Leonard Koehnen said that the old library would be protected from storms by the surrounding buildings.

For more, see our April 27 print edition.