TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV)– After months of searching, the Vigo County central dispatch center has finally found a new home.
The county council approved a resolution on Tuesday to support a request that will cost an estimated $900,000 brought forth by the county commissioners to bring the 9-1-1 center from the old jail facility to the community corrections building about a block away. Commissioner Mark Clinkenbeard said it’s a weight off of their shoulders to have this finalized.
“We’ve been searching diligently for a location. We’ve had a couple that have fallen through, one that we spent a lot of time on and got estimates for, which was the old FBI building, but it got sold. So we had to move to plan C or D, whatever you want to call it, and once this space became available, we thought this was a great space for them because it’s got built-in security, it’s got plenty of room, it has proximity to the tower,” he said.
The county council amended their rules to vote on the resolution– as typically the first meeting of the month only includes discussion. Council President Todd Thacker said they wanted to move quickly to help get the ball rolling.
“The function of that is to allow them to go ahead and contact the contractors, and make some of the acquisitions so we can move some of this process along instead of having to wait another month,” he said.
Much of the cost is due to moving the equipment from one location to another, according to Clinkenbeard. He said dispatchers had expressed their concerns on staying in the basement of the old jail earlier this week.
“We appreciate their patience, I don’t blame them for wanting to be out of this facility, as you saw, it’s not the greatest, but we’re trying to make it as good as we can the next four to five months,” he said.
Some of those improvements include reinstalling security cameras at the old jail and improving the lighting for the remainder of their time in the building. Clinkenbeard said he hopes they’ll be out of the building completely by the end of 2023.
“Now we have a permanent site. We haven’t known where they were going to go for the last two years,” he said. “Now they have a permanent site, it’s going to be a secure site, great technology, just a good day for our county to have this site come along.”
As for what’s next for the old jail building– Clinkenbeard said they hope to finish those discussions in the coming months.
“We will move forward, we will have that announcement, official announcement, within the next couple months,” he said.
