ALBEMARLE — The financial process for funding a new Stanly County 911 and Emergency Operations Center picked up steam last week.
At the Stanly County Board of Commissioners meeting on Jan. 6, the board unanimously voted to adopt and accept a budget amendment for a $2.4 million North Carolina 911 Board grant to help pay for the proposed facility.
County Manager Andy Lucas estimated that the total price for the new 911 and Emergency Operations Center has a chance to reach up to $15 million, all costs considered.
The accepted award amount was based on 85% of the county’s total grant request from the state, guided by the North Carolina 911 Board’s percent-based system based on the tier designation of the requesting county. Stanly County also appropriated a fund balance of $30,000 for the portion of the mentioned professional services not covered by the grant.
Commissioner Bill Lawhon made the motion to adopt the budget amendment, which was seconded by Vice Chairman Brandon King.
The grant funding, which includes professional services from Mission Critical Partners for technology management and facilities migration support, is designated for a portion of construction costs and other primary public safety answering point costs as defined by the grant agreement.
Mission Critical Partners is a Pennsylvania-based independent IT support services firm that assists clients in enhancing their operational systems; the firm offers public safety consulting expertise to enhance mission critical communications in the public sector.
“Mission Critical has been instrumental in our public safety data system transition, as well as facility design review and several other projects,” Stanly County E-911 Director Kyle Griffin said in his presentation to the board. “Their knowledge and resources have proved to be extremely beneficial on such complex projects.”
In 2022, the county agreed to a contract with Hexagon for a new and upgraded computer aided dispatch system that went online last year and has continued to make strides in its implementation.
“We’re making progress every day,” Griffin added. “Changing something after 25 years has had its fair share of challenges but we’re making progress. We’ve got a team here that actually landed about two hours ago, and they’ll be here the rest of the week with us. We’re hoping to knock a lot more off of our list.”
The Stanly County Board of Commissioners is set to meet again on Jan. 21 at 6 p.m. in the Gene McIntyre Meeting Room at Stanly County Commons, where additional information regarding the total cost of the 911 and Emergency Operations Center project will be revealed.