Merced County unveils new emergency dispatch center

A new emergency dispatch center in Merced County, a project nearly a decade in the making, was formally unveiled Monday before a crowd of more than 75 people at Castle Airport in Atwater.

Sheriff Tom Cavallero said the project was the brainchild of former Sheriff Mark Pazin, who left the department late last year to serve as chief of the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services Law Enforcement Branch.

“Today, we do more than just dedicate a county facility,” Cavallero said. “We reaffirm our commitment to investing in our public safety infrastructure, particularly as it relates to arguably the most vital component, that of the first responder.”

Pazin was the keynote speaker at Monday’s unveiling. The former sheriff said the idea was born out of the struggles the county endured in the 1990s responding to numerous floods and large fires.

“We were relegated to the basement of the county building on M Street and (dispatch was) shoehorned into a glorified closet, as far as I was concerned,” Pazin told the Merced Sun-Star. “Even then, as a young commander, I knew, we all knew, there had to be a better way to deal with emergencies.”

The new center was one part of a multimillion-dollar project combining 911 dispatch and the Merced County Office of Emergency Services. The dispatch center moved to Castle Airport in August.

Emergency calls in Merced County were dispatched in different areas of the Sheriff’s Department’s 22nd Street office beginning in 1968. Since then, new technologies and increasing workloads forced officials to look for a better facility.

Cavallero said the county typically receives more than 40,000 emergency calls each year.

Molly Behn, dispatch supervisor, said the 13 emergency dispatchers employed by the county were pleased with the new center. She said it will help them do a better job getting quick assistance to people in emergencies.

The Board of Supervisors first approved funding for the new dispatch and the county’s emergency operations center in late 2013. The project’s total price tag comes to about $3.9 million

Capt. B.J. Jones, the department commander who oversaw the project, said the public should feel more secure with the new center. “This is a state-of-the-art building and it will make our service even better than before,” Jones said.

Nancy Koerperich, chief of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection in Merced County, said the new dispatch center will help all first responders in the county: fire, law enforcement and paramedics.

“It improves our capabilities, both logistical and operational,” Koerperich said. “Just having additional space also improves the county’s effectiveness responding to disasters. It gives us more room to work and will allow us to get the word out faster in an emergency.”

This story was originally published September 29, 2014 at 9:22 PM with the headline "Merced County unveils new emergency dispatch center."