$1M grant awarded for county emergency center

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security will provide the grant that could be the final piece of the funding puzzle for the long-awaited project, according to Ryan Nicholls, director of the Springfield-Greene County Office of Emergency Management. The office has been working to acquire money for a new center for several years.

“This should put us close to our end goal,” Nicholls said of the grant. While a project cost has not been finalized, he estimates it will be several million dollars.

The emergency management office intends to demolish its current home at 833 Boonville Ave. and build a new operations center in its place.

Project specifics are not decided, but architecture firm Butler, Rosenbury & Partners Inc. has been helping the office determine its needs, Nicholls said. The new center will need enough space to accommodate the personnel from agencies that are activated during an emergency and converge at the operations center, up-to-date technological capabilities to coordinate large-scale efforts, and space to house the county’s 911 center, according to Nicholls.