Communications Commission plans to hire architect soon

    The E911 Board and Communications Commission have made progress toward finding an architect for the new dispatch center, wherever it may be. The board and commission met at the former Washington Library Thursday and discussed the issue of a new dispatch center at length. At the end of the meeting, the commission decided to get a small group of people together to craft a request for proposal (RFP) to send to interested architects. Bob Shepherd, the chairman of the commission, said he hopes the commission will be able to select an architect at its Nov. 29 meeting.

    The commissioners are trying to decide whether to move the dispatch center to the second floor of the former library or to construct a new building specifically for it at Orchard Hill. City Administrator Dave Plyman, who is not a member of the board or commission, spoke at Thursday?s meeting about keeping the cost of the project under control.

    ?The city of Washington spends about $217,000 a year to support the communications center, and it?s because of that high cost to us that we?re concerned about the escalating costs of communications,? said Plyman. ?We?re at a point where we really have trouble paying the bills as it is. We?re concerned about the cost of a new structure. We see the cost of reusing old structures as less than new construction.?

    Plyman said the city is committed to using the former library whether there is a dispatch center upstairs or not. He mentioned that none of the architects who have looked at the building have expressed a concern about its structural integrity. The thing that most concerns him is that the commission is not operating within a budget, he said. He added that raising taxes to pay for a new building is ?not an option? in this economy.

    Communications Supervisor Cara Sorrells said at the August meeting that key pieces of 911 equipment may only have six months left of operation. She and others familiar with 911 equipment have said that installing new equipment in the current building and moving it later would be hard on the machines, and that it is preferable to install the new equipment in the center?s new location.

Plyman stressed that the board and commission need to make a decision about purchasing new 911 equipment because they cannot wait for the equipment to fail. 

    ?If my car fails, I?ll drive my wife?s car or I?ll walk. I have alternatives,? said Plyman. ?But we don?t have any good alternatives when it comes to communications equipment.?

    Commissioner Wes Rich said the delay in purchasing the equipment is because the board is working under the assumption it has to be moved, which he said is wrong.

    ?If you want to cut costs, stay right where you are, put new 911 equipment in there and the county won?t say anything,? said Rich.

For more, see our Oct. 29 print edition.