Montgomery County, PA

 

NORRISTOWN — The Montgomery County Commissioners completed this administration’s effort to upgrade nearly every facet of emergency response Tuesday with the Grand Reopening of the Public Safety Operations Center.

 

The recently completed 9,600-square-foot addition accommodates an additional 35 workstations in the 9-1-1 Emergency Dispatch Center, an expanded and improved Emergency Operations Center and offices for administrative staff.

 

Before the $8.5 million upgrade, Public Safety employees worked around the clock, 365-days-a-year in a windowless bunker 16 feet underground.

 

This is the last of four major public safety initiatives undertaken and completed by the current administration, which leaves office at the end of the year.

 

The Commissioners activated a wireless silent-alarm “panic button” system last month that provides an added layer of protection to schools.

 

The Countywide Law enforcement Alerting and Safety System (CLASS) also provides responding officers the ability to call up floor plans of the school on their laptop computers so that they can have a better idea of what they’re dealing with.

 

It is expected to be deployed in all public schools by the end of the year and all private, parochial and nursery schools throughout the County soon after. The system is expected to cost $1 million.
Earlier in the October, the Commissioners dedicated a new high-rise addition to the Structural Fire Building.

 

The $2.2 million four-story addition brings the size of the “Burn Building” to 20,000 square feet. It includes simulated office cubicles, both internal and external high-rise fire escapes and rappelling anchors attached to the roof.

 

Increased development has brought larger and more complex structures to Montgomery County and our firefighters, most of whom are volunteer, need training experience in multi-level structures.

 

The Commissioners also dedicated the County’s new Tactical Response Training Center in September.

 

The 23,000-square-foot weapons and anti-terrorism training facility cost $10.8 million to build and is unique to the region. Located at the Montgomery County Public Safety Campus in Conshohocken, the training center has fifteen 50-yard lanes and five 100-yard lanes for practicing both maximum distance and close-in with firearms.

 

Each range includes two targeting systems, a spinning “good-guy/bad-guy” system for split-second timing training and another for tracking moving “running man” objects.

 

Most importantly, the building is large enough that firefighters, emergency technicians, hazardous materials handlers and bomb disposal crews can train in tandem with police for a variety of disaster scenarios.

 

“In anything, being prepared is the only way to succeed,” Commissioners Chairman Thomas Jay Ellis said.

 

“If a disaster strikes, whether it’s natural or man-made, our police, fire and EMS personnel will be prepared to protect our families,” Ellis said. “Saving lives, that’s what this building is all about.”

 

The County will make the facility available to the 1,500 law enforcement officers that operate within our borders first and open it to other agencies in the region on an as-available basis.

 

State and federal money, combined with private donations raised by the County’s Police Chiefs Association, paid a portion of the costs.  The County will pay the remaining $7.4 million.

 

 

Montgomery County Commissioners Chairman Thomas Jay Ellis and Public Safety Director Tom Sullivan cut the ribbon the County’s expanded Public Safety Operations Center.