[May 15, 2013] Latah County dispatch getting an upgrade Tweet MOSCOW, May 15, 2013 (Lewiston Tribune - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- The Latah County Sheriff's Office emergency dispatch center will be retiring its old map-and-pin system for an all-new digital mapping program -- and that's just one of the upgrades planned for coming months. "We're demolishing everything you see (in the dispatch center)," said Michael Rosen, support services supervisor for the sheriff's office. The dispatch center is undergoing a nearly $300,000 remodel and equipment upgrade that will double the approximately 180-square-foot dispatch space, create a larger lobby and bring in new technology. That process began Tuesday, when one dispatch station was temporarily moved to the basement of the Latah County Courthouse, Rosen said. The second station will be moved today. "This whole thing's going to improve our capabilities for dispatch," Rosen said of the upgrade and remodel. The project was delayed for about five months while a feasibility study was conducted at the request of the Latah County commissioners. The study was to determine whether dispatch for Latah County should remain at the sheriff's office or be switched to Whitcom, a consolidated emergency dispatch center for Pullman, Moscow, Washington State University and Whitman and Asotin counties. Commissioners decided against the consolidation following the study's conclusions that there were trust issues between Latah County Sheriff Wayne Rausch and Whitcom, and that use of Enhanced 911 fees would be too problematic. "We would have been done by now easily," had it not been for the study, Lt. Brannon Jordan said. Two walls in the dispatch center will be knocked down to increase space in the lobby and for the dispatch stations, Jordan said. The lobby will increase by about three feet to allow more space for daily business traffic. The second wall will be knocked down to allow more room for the dispatch stations and will create space for a third station, if it is approved. Jordan said the sheriff's office has been asking for funding approval for a third dispatch station, but the county commissioners have not yet signed off on it. "So essentially by moving the walls we'll be opening the space up, but it's also for customer service," Rosen said. The dispatch remodel is just the start of renovations at the sheriff's office. The county is planning to remodel the entire sheriff's office once money becomes available in fiscal year 2014. "This is the first significant change to the floor plan in decades," Jordan said. The project will be partially funded by an Idaho Emergency Communications Commission E911 grant awarded to the sheriff's office in November. The grant for $187,000 will be put toward a new phone system that Rosen said will be include an automated answering service to streamline customer service and prevent routine business calls from going through emergency dispatch. "We'd been looking at (the upgrade and remodel) for several years, but the big push was last year when we applied for the grant," Rosen said. When the office received the grant, Rosen said the sheriff decided it would also be a good time to update everything else. An additional $110,000 for the projects will be used from E911 funds allocated to the sheriff's office, Rosen said. E911 funds come from a 911 emergency service fee set by the state that every person with a landline or cellphone is charged. The additional money will go toward radios, monitors, the digital mapping technology, and furniture for the dispatch stations. Jordan said the remodel and upgrade might sound like an easy process because they're just moving some equipment, but it's a little more complicated than that. The dispatch center will have to stay up and running without the public noticing much of a difference. Callers who contact the dispatch center shouldn't be affected, but individuals who need to come inside the sheriff's office will have to make contact through an intercom outside the lobby. The lobby will be closed during the remodel and daily business services like fingerprinting, concealed weapon permit applications and bond payments will be available from 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday. "It's just a little bump in the road, but it will definitely be better," Rosen said. Rudd may be contacted at [email protected] or (208) 791-8465. ___ (c)2013 the Lewiston Tribune (Lewiston, Idaho) Visit the Lewiston Tribune (Lewiston, Idaho) at www.lmtribune.com Distributed by MCT Information Services [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]