YOUR BUSINESS AUTHORITY
Springfield, MO
YOUR BUSINESS AUTHORITY
Springfield, MO
Construction has commenced on a multimillion-dollar new 911 dispatch center in Bolivar following a recent groundbreaking ceremony.
The $6.5 million center for Polk County Central Dispatch is a project that has taken years to reach this point, said the organization’s director, Sarah Newell. She said the county’s Emergency 911 Board approved a $180,000 purchase in 2017 of nearly 5 acres in Davis Properties’ Village Acres, a retail office park in Bolivar, on which to build the facility. However, securing enough funding to build the 10,000-square-foot building at 370 N. Davis Drive took until last year after the dispatch center was awarded $4.4 million in state funds as part of the fiscal 2024 budget to help pay for the project.
Gov. Mike Parson, who maintains a residence in Bolivar, attended the July 8 groundbreaking, along with Sens. Lincoln Hough, R-Springfield, and Sandy Crawford, R-Buffalo. Newell credited the three state officials for their support of the center, adding state funding was vital to get the project off the ground. Additionally, Newell said Parson was Polk County sheriff in 2003 when the county central dispatch – a joint operation of various county agencies – was formed.
“He’s had a vested interest in this agency, obviously from its infancy,” Newell said of the governor. “He was actually integral in central dispatch coming together.”
All 911 calls are routed through the center, which operates 24/7 and is governed by a board of directors representing the city of Bolivar, Citizens Memorial Hospital, Polk County Sheriff’s Office, as well as the Polk County Commission and the Polk County Fire & Rescue Training Association, according to the organization’s website. It coordinates all emergency services, including police, fire and medical responses.
The center’s remaining funding comes from the county’s three-eighths-cent sales tax, which voters approved in 2011 and that Newell said last year generated around $1.7 million.
“The $2 million was doable. We could make that work as far as financing,” Newell said of county funding for the project. “We just could not afford the financing and payment on the $6.5 (million).”
Crossland Construction Co. Inc. is general contractor on the project designed by Kansas City-based Hoefer Welker LLC. A spring 2025 opening is planned, Newell said, noting the new center is “significantly bigger” than its current facility, which operates in leased space at 1705 S. Lillian Ave., Ste. B, in Bolivar. The new center will mark the first facility the organization has owned in its 21-year history, according to officials.
“We’re pretty close to doubling our space,” Newell said of the new facility, adding it includes safety features such as tornado-proof construction and an on-site public storm shelter.
Director at Polk County Central Dispatch since 2010, Newell started at the 26-employee organization as a dispatcher.
“I have been here for 20 years and am so excited to see this finally become a reality,” she said.
A wave of affordable housing built in the 1990s through the federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credit are expected to revert to market rate housing in the next few years.
