Two months after its dedication, Harford County's new Department of Emergency Services building is still not equipped to dispatch 911 calls or handle storm emergency responses.
The Emergency Operations Center portion of the building is expected to be operational in the first week of February, while the 911 Center is not set to be up and running until the end of March, county government spokesperson Cindy Mumby said.
"If an EOC activation were required, the emergency management team and other supporting personnel would report to the 'old' EOC, which is still operational with computers, phones and other IT [information technology] resources," Mumby said.
The county unveiled the new $40 million, 110,000-square-foot building in November 2014, when more than 200 people packed into Emergency Operations Center area. The new building is off Route 543 in the Hickory area north of Bel Air. It was built next door to the old emergency operations center building which also housed 911 operations.
Although some personnel have moved from the old building to the new one, the EOC area where the dedication was held is still without computers and telephones. Only the flat screen TVs along the room's walls were installed prior to the November dedication ceremony.
Mumby noted the dedication took place toward the end of former county executive David Craig's administration, about three weeks before County Executive Barry Glassman was sworn in Dec. 1.
Mumby said she could not speak to the decisions of the prior administration or why the building was opened before it was fully operational.
Only 24 employees had moved into the new facility as of last week, Mumby said. About 58 staff members are still working in the old facility.
"All but three are dispatchers assigned to the 911 Center," Mumby explained about the staff in the old building. "The three personnel who are not dispatchers are assigned to the Radio Shop. Other personnel, those assigned to the Haz Mat Team and Technical Rescue Team, work off-site."
Mobilizing the new Emergency Operations Center is contingent on installing phones and computers at the work stations, Mumby said.
The 911 Center will also be operational once computer equipment, telephones and a new radio system are installed, she said.
The installation "includes testing of the equipment to ensure proper operational capabilities," she said."The equipment was budgeted for inclusion in the new building."
Mumby said the county is still considering original plans to build the second phase of the Emergency Services building, which was to contain a radio shop and the hazmat operations, after it demolishes the old EOC building.
While Glassman's announcement on Friday that he was putting a hold on spending for new capital projects for at least a year was expected to delay the second phase, Mumby was more equivocal when talking about it this week.
"The project is under review along with the entire capital budget," she said. "The administration is looking at the overall fiscal picture, including debt service, in determining which projects may move forward and which projects may have to be deferred."
Three contracts totaling $276,610 were approved Tuesday by the county's Board of Estimates for an upgraded telephone notification system, additional 911 Center phone stations and renewals of dispatching software.
Of the total, $86,000 was approved for Verizon Business to provide two more stations, for a total of 20, in the 911 Center.
The board approved $65,610 to Priority Dispatch to buy six additional licenses and subsidize annual maintenance on the ProQA/AQUA emergency police and fire dispatch software, originally approved in 2005.
Another $125,000 was awarded to Blackboard Connect Inc. for a grant-funded telephone notification system that lets the county send unlimited messages to more than 78,000 recipients for emergency and informational systems.
Estimates board members approved the items without any objections or major concerns.
Director of Administration Billy Boniface said after the meeting he is confident everything in the new building will be up and running in the within a few months.
Boniface said the county is still working on some issues with Motorola and Verizon regarding the 911 Center set-up.
"I think we are getting pretty close," he said, adding the wait will be worthwhile.
"I think this is going to increase the capabilities for [the Department of Emergency Services] to run as the 911 center," he said of the new software and equipment.