Improved space for Habersham County’s 911 dispatchers could be up and running within the next two years, according to county officials, at the new Habersham County Emergency Services central station in Demorest.
The new HCES station, which has not been designed at this point, will include a new E-911 center, providing an upgraded facility from the center’s current 70-year-old building.
The HCES central station
The central station will be located on Demorest Mt. Airy Highway, next to Demorest Elementary School in the area that used to be their soccer field; the area was abandoned and is now overgrown. The county purchased the land from the board of education for a total of $252,264 to build the new station on.
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The county is currently in the process of finding the architectural candidate with the right qualifications to design the facility. Then they will move to the design phase, and later building phase, of the new station. Interim County Manager Alicia Vaughn estimates the project could be completed between one and two years from now.
An overview of E-911 and their facilities
Habersham County’s E-911 Center dispatches emergency services and public safety around the county, managing calls from 911 emergencies, like fires, to non-emergency calls, like sending an officer to help someone get their keys out of their car.
The E-911 center is essential to making sure first responders can arrive on the scene to save lives when people need those services the most. But they’re not just dispatching calls for Habersham County, with cellphones pinging different towers in Northeast Georgia, Habersham’s dispatchers sometimes receive calls from other counties that need to be rerouted, or they need to dispatch for other entities, like Georgia State Patrol.
E-911 Director Lynn Smith says E-911 is understaffed right now; the department is working with an average of three employees per shift with five dispatching stations to operate.
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While those employees work long hours to keep the county safe, the facility they work in isn’t up-to-date. Habersham County Commission Chairman Bruce Palmer describes the current E-911 facility as “like a dungeon.”
The underground building, which is at least 70 years old according to QPublic records, has no windows and only one door— one way in, and one way out. The only other point of exit in the building is an escape hatch. With the walls being 16 inches thick, Smith says there isn’t much she can do to the building.
“The facility is old and there is not a lot I can do to make it better. With a new facility, hopefully, it will boost morale and help us recruit new employees.”
New location, new facilities
While there have not been any specific plans for the new E-911 facilities announced, Palmer and Smith have discussed what they hope to see in the new location.
Palmer shared his concerns for the morale of the employees at the E-911 center during his public safety town hall meeting in December. He says that he hopes this new facility will provide dispatchers, who often work 12-hour-long shifts in a dark room in the facility, with a workspace that gives them a chance to see outdoors.
Smith says that having more space to communicate and coordinate during major events, like Winter Storm Izzy that caused damage to homes and businesses, power outages, downed trees and powerlines and wrecks would be a welcome improvement.
