Extension granted for new emergency operations center

When a Category 3 hurricane bears down on Sarasota County, emergency workers scramble to gather laptops and supplies from the sixth floor of the Administration Center and head to an unlikely place: an elementary school.

Miles of wires and cables are pulled down from the ceiling tiles in building six at Wilkinson Elementary School to plug members of various agencies into the county’s telecommunications to prepare for the storm. The three-day process is necessary because the current emergency operations center is only built to withstand winds up 110 miles per hour and storm surge from Category 2 storms.

Now a new building that would make that protocol obsolete is a step closer to being erected after the county received an extension for a $1 million grant through April 30, 2013.

The location, on Porter Road east of Interstate-75, met the criteria the county sought, said Sarasota County Emergency Chief Ed McCrane. It will sit across the street from the county data center, which is near public transit routes and has two entrances to the interstate within close proximity. Most importantly, McCrane explained, is that it falls outside of areas threatened by the storm surge of hurricanes.

“If (the county) didn’t settle on that location, we would have likely lost the grant,” McCrane said. “And if we picked another site, we definitely would have lost the grant.”

“We’re happy to get the grant back because it’s a good chunk of funding,” said Fire Chief Mike Tobias, who is also the interim director of the Sarasota County Emergency Services.

Bob Stuckey, general manager of public safety communications and the enterprise call center, is the project manager for the new emergency operations center. He said the progress is a relief.

“The frequency and tendency of hurricanes in Florida has definitely increased,” Stuckey said. To qualify for the grant, the county must build the site to withstand winds of up to 200 miles per hour.

“Standards for buildings are elevated,” Stuckey said. “When Hurricane Charley (in 2004) hit Charlotte, that really woke people up.”

As general manager of the county’s 911 call-center operations, Stuckey wants to ensure the safety of his operators during a disaster.

“My heart and soul is to make sure 911 will survive a major hurricane event,” he said.

“If we hadn’t gotten the extension, it would be a little more money that taxpayers have to pay,” McCrane said.Savings come from the building, itself, because the current emergency operations center is built to withstand 110 mph wind speeds and is located in a Category 3 storm-surge zone.

This requires Sarasota County to pay for the $7,000 annual upkeep of two generators set up at Wilkinson Elementary and the Terrace Building downtown in case emergency operations and 911 call centers must be moved. The call center moves to the Terrace Building, which regularly houses the office of the Sarasota County Supervisor of Elections.

The process of the relocation is costly, as well as dangerous. The preparation begins if Sarasota County falls within the three-day error cone meteorologists use to estimate a hurricane’s path. Then, 12 hours before expected landfall, all of the necessary employees do final communication checks from their temporary operations centers. “That’ll be the most exciting part about the new building,” McCrane said. “We don’t have to relocate.”

The project is progressing at a quicker pace then it has before the extension was granted, McCrane explained. Sarasota County Public Works has already done the programming for the spatial needs of each agency with architects: Winter Park-based Architects Design Group Inc. and Tampa-based Fleischman Garcia. (See sidebar.)

“A bid will go out in the next several weeks for a construction manager the (the architects) will partner with,” McCrane said. “Hopefully we get a lot of good bids,” he said. “That’ll be the next big step.”

Résumé
Fleischman Garcia is one of the architecture firms designing the new emergency operations building for Sarasota County. Based in Tampa, the firm specializes in public projects including five fire stations.
Fire Station No. 3, St. Armands Circle, Longboat Key
Fire Station No. 12, St. Petersburg
Lealman Fire Rescue Station No. 18, St. Petersburg
Fire station No. 54, Oldsmar