Plans for New, Tough Emergency Center Move Ahead

The planned $28 million project to expand the Morris County public safety complex is moving forward.

The county advertised for bids for the project Wednesday and will publicly open the bids Aug. 9.

The project is a three-story addition and other alterations to the existing public safety complex on West Hanover Avenue. County treasurer Glenn Roe said Wednesday the county will finance the project through the Morris County Improvement Authority, which has provided millions of dollars in low-interest loans to municipalities and schools in the past decade. Backed by the county’s AAA bond rating, the improvement authority is able to borrow money at lower rates than other agencies.

The complex would house an emergency management center, a dispatch center, a crime lab and the county's primary information technology center.

It would be located between the existing training center and Hanover Avenue. Other than one public entrance, it would have isolated, secure entry points for personnel.

Construction is expected to begin in the fall, and the center would open in late 2013.

The building would have three floors. The first would the crime lab, the technology center, a public area and support offices. The second floor would house the communications center and support functions. The third, the emergency management center.

The freeholders first considered building the public safety complex on a separate lot on West Hanover, but after studying other sites and consulting with other public safety organizations, chose to expand the current building.

Architect Mark Coan of USA Architects presented the general plans to the freeholders.

He said the proposed building was designed to align the hardened centers—the emergency management center, communications and technology center—to reduce construction costs and to provide extra security for cabling and other utility connections.

The technology center would house the county's main computer center and the computers needed to operate the safety complex.

Scott Di Giralomo, the county's director of law and public safety, said previously that having the new center connected to the training academy would provide access to extra space in the case of an extended emergency that would require feeding crews on hand and providing sleeping space.

He said the proposed structure has been designed to survive a catastrophic hurricane striking the East Coast.

The New York-New Jersey-Connecticut area has 33 public safety centers, he said, and a study of the effects of a big hurricane showed that only three would survive intact. None of those would be in New Jersey.

In the event of such a storm, Di Giralomo said, "this would be the last building standing in Morris County."

Key areas of the building would be hardened to withstand severe weather and other conditions. In addition, the public safety center would have space for state and federal emergency and law enforcement personnel if the needs arises. Morris County and Picatinny Arsenal, for example, have a reciprocal agreement to share space should the need arise during an emergency.

The communications center is designed to accommodate dispatchers who answer emergency calls from the county’s municipalities. So far nearly 30 of the county's towns have agreed to shift emergency dispatching to the county operation.

To support this growing communication system, the Morris County Freeholders have approved a $13 million upgrade to the public safety radio communications system that is aimed at filling in the gaps in the emergency radio coverage across the county.

The upgrade calls for the addition of three radio towers and software improvements that are expected to provide 95 percent reliability, which is the standard for a public safety grade system. There would be one new tower each in the northeastern, southeastern and southwestern sections of the county.

The current system is under capacity, said Raymond Hayling of the county’s emergency management office, who explained the project to the freeholders.

The original system was designed for 750 users and now has 3,600 users,  he said.

The upgrade, Di Geralomo said, should help extend the life of the system to 2030, which is the end of the reliable life of the radios and other equipment.

This upgrade will push the Morris system far enough ahead that the next upgrade would only be software and could cost an estimated $200,000, officials have said.