Battle Creek dispatch center slated to move

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Battle Creek dispatch center slated to move
Holly Doyle, News 3 Reporter
May 18, 2006 - 10:55PM
(NEWS 3) - Battle Creek is moving its central dispatch center, maybe by the fall.

City Manger Wayne Wiley says the deactivated Fire Station One is a good fit.

"I'm not thinking there's any major obstacles here, but until we get in and start designing it, we won't know," Wiley says.

For now, the plans will move forward.

The city and county law enforcement is getting new, upgraded, digital equipment soon and the entire central dispatch center is getting reconfigured for it; Wiley says, that made it a good time to, again, take up the issue of possibly moving the center.

"If there's going to be a change, now would be the time to do it because we'd save a substantial amount of money by building consoles in a new location rather than disrupting work," Wiley says.

Mayor John Godfrey likes the idea. He adds this isn't just about moving dispatch, this will give much more room to the cramped, landlocked, Battle Creek Police Department.

"It's kind of hemmed in, we got a streets on two sides, city hall on another and a municipal parking lot, there's not a lot of room to expand the police building," Godfrey says.

But this idea is meeting some resistance from a couple City Commissioners.

Commissioner Andy Yankama questions why contingency funds would be spent on this, but bus routes are cut.

"I would see the need to use the contingency fund for more or less make sure we have busing for seniors," Yankama says.

He also raises concerns about how secure dispatch will be in the new building, and if major upgrades are needed, what would it cost?

"When the time comes to pass that money," Yankama says referring to contracts or amounts greater than contingency funds that will go before the commission," they will have trouble."

Wiley says, and Godfrey agrees, that this is a decision for the future.

"If we look short-term and say we're a few dollars short today so therefore, we won't make the decision, it might end up costing us a lot more in the future," Wiley says.

"Even though we are in a tight budget situation, we still have a responsibility to continue to move the forward and I think this is moving the city forward," Godfrey says.

Wiley says dispatch could move in by the Fall, or early Winter. But planning and feasibility studies need to be done first.

And he admits, if this ends up costing much more than they anticipate, they might not go this route.

The actual cost isn't yet known.