Johnson County Emergency Communications Center (Photo Courtney McCain)
With an increasing push toward green technology and design, a Kansas-based comm center has set a gold standard?not only with its environmentally friendly design, but also with its functionality. The Johnson County Emergency Communications Center is one of the radio communications flagships of the Kansas City metro?politan area.
The spacious Johnson County Emergency Communications Center (locally known as CCC) was awarded a prestigious Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council shortly after it opened in 2009.
?We had been expecting LEED Silver,? says CCC Director Walter Way. ?We were able to recycle a lot of materials used in construction.?
That LEED Gold designation wasn?t unprecedented. Johnson County received its first gold designation for the Sunset Drive Office Building that houses multiple county agencies and is located just across the street from the new CCC. And another LEED award may be in the works: The county is building a new green crime lab adjacent to the CCC. The entire complex is based in Olathe, a growing suburb located in the southwest quadrant of the nine-county, bi-state Kansas City metro area.
Kansas City?s metro (KC metro) area has 45 PSAPs (handling a total of 2 million calls annually) that have been coordinated since 1983 by the Mid-America Regional Council (MARC), a nonprofit cooperative of city, county and state officials. Some consolidation has taken place in KC metro?s radio communications, with Johnson County?s CCC taking a prominent role.
?We have a history of interagency cooperation in this region,? Way says.
Like many suburban counties in the U.S., Johnson County (known as JOCO by locals) has been rapidly growing for the past three decades. The county is now swelling with 540,000 residents.? JOCO CCC personnel handled more than 49,000 fire and EMS calls in 2010, and JOCO sheriff?s dispatchers fielded nearly three times that number of calls.
The CCC is the first 9-1-1 center in the KC metro area to use VoIP-based systems and is one of two sites for selective routers that will serve the entire area. (The other router is located just across the state line, in Lee?s Summit, Mo.)
?We?re also looking at a ?middleware? concept that would take care of translations between agencies that are on different systems,? Way says, referring to a FATPOT system that would serve as a translator between radio systems across the metro area. ?We?re hoping to have this up and functional for agencies in this county by the fall.?
Way says that?s just the beginning of interoperability potential that extends well past the city. With its next generation capabilities, the CCC is also one of three pilot sites for a statewide Next Generation 9-1-1 ?backbone,? Way says. The other sites are in the central Kansas community of Emporia and Clark County in rural southwest Kansas. All three pilot sites should be operational by March 2012.
The Build
In the heyday of expansion, Johnson County administrators realized that the 30-year-old 9-1-1 center (then based in the JOCO community of Mission), also needed to move forward with the times. Communications personnel were crammed into tight quarters, with poor ventilation and little space, as the population grew exponentially.
?The county adopted a posture years ago for environmentally friendly construction,? Way says of the long-term planning that went into the CCC?s two-story, 46,000 square foot building. Mostly local contractors were hired for the $14 million construction project, which was paid for with a 20-year bond and no grants.
?I don?t want to rely on funds that might not be there after a few years,? Way says.
An additional $7 million was allocated for replacement consoles and the latest radio communications equipment, bringing the total cost of the structure and equipment to just more than $21 million. Funds from 9-1-1 revenues helped pay for radio electronics when the county outfitted the completed structure, Way says.
When the CCC facility opened in June 2009, comm center personnel were granted 7,000 square feet of floor space, with high ceilings illuminated by ambient light and ergonomically friendly consoles. Johnson County?s CCC personnel (26 dispatchers and man?agers) and county sheriff?s dispatchers
(36 total) currently share that floor space. They also have access to a full kitchen, a locker room with showers and a fully equipped workout room. Nearly every part of the building and its furnishings are made with recycled materials.
Johnson County Emergency Communications Center (Photo Courtney McCain)
Although architects worked toward future conservation, they didn?t ignore Kansas?s stormy history. The building is hardened to withstand an F4 tornado, with 240 mile per hour winds. It was completed with foot-thick, reinforced concrete walls and overhead grates. An additional 20 technical personnel split between both agencies are responsible for the extensive communications network based in that ultra-protected area that also houses the building?s backup generators and heating/cooling systems. The systems have multiple layers of redundancy should a power or connection failure occur.
?The radio room is the most secure area of the building,? Way says.
At 4,500 square feet, the room houses core consoles for CCC?s CAD system and disaster recovery networks for Johnson County agencies and many of the municipalities within the county. Radio technicians at the center are responsible for programming and maintaining the radio system, including 3,400 radios, for countywide agencies, ranging from public safety to public works.
The center also features a backup emergency operation center with a separate conference room and admini?strative facilities.
Gone Green
Three of the CCC?s key features aren?t clearly visible. An 11,000 square foot, vegetated roof helps insulate the structure and also absorbs storm water for recycling. Interior air quality is addressed by the building?s open design and by the use of a UVC (microbe-killing ultraviolet-C light) filtering system for recirculating that air.
In addition, 119 geothermal wells have been dug behind the CCC and the under-construction crime lab. Coinciding with the crime lab?s opening this winter, the ClimaCool system will circulate water 500 feet below ground (through the constant 50? temperature there) and back through a complex network of pipes that will both heat and cool the structures during the environmental extremes common in the Midwest.
?Buildings like these are designed to pay for themselves with what is saved in utility costs,? Way says. ?We use less energy. We also have a healthier environment for workers. Folks are more comfortable. They feel better. It makes a difference.?
The structure is already attracting visitors from all over the country hoping to glean ideas and advice. Way hopes that inviting environment may also bring more local dispatch personnel into the center and encourage collaboration.
?If a city within the metro area wishes to relocate dispatchers to our facility, we have room for them,? Way says. ?If that agency would pay for their radio equipment, they can relocate here rent-free. Of the available consoles, 65% are being used. Our center was designed for growth.?
Although the CCC is focused on future development, county personnel didn?t forget about the old equipment that went offline when the new center opened, fulfilling another recycling legacy. Although a storage facility initially wasn?t in the new building?s design, it was added at the behest of radio system technicians, who quickly proved the value of spare parts.
?We had saved that older equipment?the high-band combiners and repeaters,? Way says. ?We weren?t using it, so we forwarded it to the county for the [newly reconstructed] jail. That saved the county $60,000.?
About the Author
Courtney McCain has worked as a paramedic and an air medical dispatcher in Kansas and Texas. She is now a writer focusing on public safety issues. Contact her via e-mail at kemsnews@everestkc.net.
?
This article originally appeared in August 2011 Public Safety Communications. All rights: APCO International.
nike pro combat gardasil gardasil wes welker usnews new york special election windows 8
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.