PORT ANGELES — Officials from across Clallam County support combining the county’s Emergency Operations Center with a dispatch center near Fairchild International Airport, but there is plenty of work to be done before such an effort could become reality.
During a work session Monday, officials and first responders from Port Angeles, Forks, Sequim and Clallam County told the Board of County Commissioners that the current emergency operations center — located in the basement of the courthouse — is inadequate and that the airport would be a prime location for a new facility.
City officials said cities will depend on the county in a catastrophe and spoke of concerns of what would happen if the current EOC is destroyed in a massive earthquake.
“It’s a pretty safe bet if we do have a Cascadia-like event, not only will our present EOC be wiped out, but the dispatch center that we do have across the street will probably not be functional,” Sheriff Bill Benedict said.
Officials agreed the next step forward is to develop a “shared vision” for what a new emergency operations center would include.
Officials said that ideally an emergency operations center would co-exist with a new dispatch center.
Charlie Bush, Sequim’s city manager, said the city of Sequim has been planning its response if the county’s current EOC isn’t there where an earthquake hits.
“The current location of the EOC is a real concern,” he said.
He said that during an emergency once the city’s resources are overwhelmed, protocol calls for the city to reach out to the county.
“If the county EOC isn’t there, we have a major problem,” he said. “So, we’re very supportive of the move of the county EOC to a location that is more likely to be there after a major event.”
They all agreed near the airport is a good idea, but many details still would need to be hammered out.
There were questions of which agencies would own the EOC, what plot of land it would sit on and what contracts would need to be in place.
How a new building would fit in with the ongoing effort to merge PenCom and JeffCom 9-1-1 dispatch centers is another unanswered question.
Karl Hatton, director of PenCom and JeffCom dispatch centers, said that as the director of PenCom, he feels the dispatch center in Port Angeles is too small and said he welcomes the idea of expanding.
He also said that from his experience in Jefferson County he knows it is beneficial for the EOC and dispatch center to be co-located.
“We’re one door away from each other,” he said. “It’s helpful … those six to eight times a year when we activate the EOC due to a weather incident or some major incident.”
He said that Jefferson County has a perception that if Clallam County moves ahead with a new EOC that it could happen “with or without” Jefferson County.
He said Jefferson County also is looking at locations that could work for a facility in Jefferson County.
“In a best possible world, in my personal opinion, is if we had a co-located EOC with a co-located 9-1-1 center, I think there’s a whole lot of value there,” Hatton said. “I think it would be foolish not to look at this opportunity … but I would just say that from a Jefferson County perspective it throws in a change of thought.”
There was a general consensus that a new building should fulfill the county’s needs for the next several decades and that the county should plan for growth.
Port Angeles Fire Chief Ken Dubuc suggested that built into a new facility could be a west-side fire station for the Port Angeles Fire Department.
“We’re fully in support of this,” Dubuc said. “The city is fully on board with an effort to put in an EOC.”
He said 20 years ago the fire department identified a need for a west side station.
Ben Andrews, fire chief for Clallam Fire District No. 3, emphasized the need for a reliable and safe facility and said that what is being proposed makes sense.
He cautioned against under building a facility and suggested that it should be expandable.
“I would recommend not making a new EOC dependent on the ability to do a dispatch center at the same time,” he said. “If it’s too heavy of a lift to do both, the EOC should still move forward.
“You can build facilities in such a way that you plan to add the other half on later.”
Commissioner Randy Johnson said he hadn’t thought about coordinating with Jefferson County and said he doesn’t mind all the ideas that are coming up.
He expressed concerns about having too many parts to the project that could delay it from being completed.
“It sounds likes there’s a vision that everyone is saying that is pretty similar,” Johnson said.
“I don’t want to be sitting here 20 years later and still talking about this, because that’s not a way to operate.”
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Reporter Jesse Major can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56250, or at jmajor@peninsuladailynews.com.
