Cost diagnosis of new 911 center in early stages

Draft report submitted Tuesday to board members shows that between $875,000 and $2.1 million might be needed

It might take between $875,000 and $2.1 million to build a new consolidated emergency dispatch center for Flathead County.

That is a rough preliminary estimate based on such a center's need for at least 3,500 square feet of space with construction estimates ranging from $250 to $600 per square foot.

However, a draft report on whether to build a consolidated 911 center also said a construction budget still is essentially up in the air.

The Flathead City-County 911 Administrative Board received a revised draft report on the issue Tuesday. The board plans to discuss the report later this month.

Lisa Durand - a former longtime emergency dispatch official - is tweaking the draft of her studies of the Flathead's 911 situation.

Flathead County has four 911 centers.

Kalispell, Whitefish and Columbia Falls each has a 911 center to handle only police calls within their city limits.

The Flathead County Sheriff's Office supervises the fourth 911 center, which handles all city and rural fire and emergency calls in the county, plus all law-enforcement calls outside of the three cities.

The current setup has problems with too few dispatchers, equipment that does not function rapidly enough, and coordination confusion among jurisdictions.

Consequently, the 911 board - representing city and county emergency, fire and law-enforcement agencies - is looking seriously at merging the four centers, updating the equipment and training more dispatchers.

Right now, the main sheriff-operated dispatch center has an annual operating budget of $1.1 million. The three city-based 911 centers have combined annual operating budgets totaling about $850,000, according to the draft report.

However, numerous factors still need to be researched before an annual budget can be calculated for such a center, according to the report.

Meanwhile, Gallatin County's 911 center has an annual operating budget of $1.8 million, the report noted for comparison purposes.

A potential 3,500-square-foot center could be in a new building or an existing structure that would trim the construction costs, according to the report.