Cole County plans $1.3 million facility renovation
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)
HED: Cole County plans $1.3 million facility renovation
Cole County is planning a roughly $1.3 million renovation of its emergency services building while keeping the door open to a future consolidated 911 system with Jefferson City.
At Tuesday’s Cole County Commission meeting, EMS Chief Eric Hoy presented an update on the county’s emergency services building on Southridge Drive in Jefferson City.
In July, the commission approved a $29,725 contract for a study of the county’s emergency communications system.
Hoy said the communications center has outgrown its current space.
“We do not have a situation where we can sustain that for 5, 10, or 15 more years,” Hoy said.
The proposed renovation is a short-term solution while the county continues exploring a consolidated 911 system with Jefferson City.
The Southridge Drive building houses the EMS communications center, an ambulance station and emergency management equipment and supplies. It is one of six EMS stations in Cole County.
All 911 calls originating in Cole County first go to the Jefferson City Police Department’s communications center on Monroe Street. City dispatchers handle calls for the police and fire departments, the Cole County Sheriff’s Office and Cole County EMS.
When callers need an ambulance, JCPD Lt. Chad Stiefferman said city dispatchers transfer them to the county’s EMS communications center, which serves as a secondary public safety answering point.
The city also transfers calls requiring a response from Missouri Capitol Police or Lincoln University police.
Hoy and Stiefferman said bringing city and county dispatchers under one roof could improve coordination during emergencies.
“Having them all in one room will allow them to share information back and forth and coordinate, you know, through those informal channels, that we’re just not able to do right now,” Hoy said.
However, Hoy said the current system has operated for more than two decades and residents should not be concerned about delays in emergency response.
“This is the way our system is operated for, you know, a long before my arrival here. So more than two decades…but from our perspective, there are advantages of a consolidated center in the future,” Hoy said.
Hoy told ABC 17 News the long-term goal is to bring city and county dispatchers together in one center. But such a project would require significant investment and planning, and officials have not established a timeline.
In the meantime, the county needs to make improvements to its existing facility.
“But we know that we have to make some immediate improvements to the service that we provide today,” Hoy said.
The commission voted Tuesday to move forward with the renovation’s design phase, including $165,000 for architectural and engineering services and an additional $6,800 for a civil survey. The design work is intended to move the project toward bidding and construction in 2027.
The proposed renovation would address deteriorating concrete floors, water damage in former living quarters and drainage problems. It also would include mechanical, electrical and plumbing upgrades, along with an entrance that complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Hoy said the renovated space would be designed to allow communications technology to be moved to another facility if the county changes its operations in the future.
“So that if in the future we need to take that technology and move to a new facility or change our operations, we’re able to do so, and then we’re left with an open office space,” Hoy said.
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