Weber County dispatch center’s $5.2 million expansion nearly complete
Dispatchers at the Weber Area 911 and Emergency Services District offices in Ogden, focus of an expansion that's nearly complete, field calls on Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2017. The dispatch center is housed at the Francom Public Services Center at 2186 Lincoln Ave., also the headquarters of Ogden's police and fire departments.
Tina Mathieu, executive director of the Weber Area 911 and Emergency Services District, shows the entity's new expanded facilities to the Ogden City Council on Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2017. Councilman Ben Nadolski, left, looks on while a dispatcher works. The dispatch center is housed at the Francom Public Services Center at 2186 Lincoln Ave., also the headquarters of Ogden's police and fire departments.
OGDEN — A $5.2 million addition to the emergency dispatch center serving Ogden and the rest of Weber County is nearly complete and dispatchers are already operating in the larger digs.
It’s been needed, said Tina Mathieu, who gave the Ogden City Council a tour of the facility at 2186 Lincoln Ave. on Tuesday. The old space was getting cramped.
“It was dark and tiny and everyone was sitting close to each other,” she said. Dispatchers — the people who respond to 911 calls and convey information to police and other responders — were so close to each other that they would sometimes inadvertently interfere with each other when fielding emergency calls.
The expansion of the building — more formally known as the Francom Public Safety Center and also headquarters to the Ogden police and fire departments — started last December. The heavy construction, on the south side of the building, is complete and now remodeling has to be finished, according to Mathieu.
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In all, she said, the expansion will increase the footprint of the Weber Area Dispatch 911 and Emergency Services District from around from 1,500 square feet to around 9,900 square feet. It should accommodate growth over the next 20 to 25 years, she thinks, and more immediately, gives dispatchers more room.
The city donated the land for the addition, according to Janene Eller-Smith, executive director of the Ogden City Council, while the dispatch agency covered the $5.2 million construction cost. A formal ribbon-cutting ceremony is tentatively set for Oct. 24.
The Weber Area Dispatch 911 and Emergency Services District is an independent public entity that provides dispatch services for 25 law enforcement agencies, fire departments and other emergency responders in Weber and Morgan counties. Service requests to the Ogden police and fire departments account for just over half of the call volume, which typically totals around 1,000 calls a day.
The city will retain ownership of the sections of the Francom building housing the police and fire departments while the dispatch agency will own the section it uses. Funding for the agency, which employs 76 people, comes from property, vehicle and 911 taxes.
Contact reporter Tim Vandenack at tvandenack@standard.net, follow him on Twitter at @timvandenack or like him on Facebook at Facebook.com/timvandenackreporter.
