Steele County signs off on 911 call center move
Steele and Rice county officials have signed off on an agreement that will move their joint 911 emergency call center from Pearl Street in Owatonna to a historic building in Faribault that formerly housed the Rice County sheriff’s department and jail.
The space became available with the official opening of the Rice County Law Enforcement Center last week.
The Steele County Sheriff’s Office will also move soon from a Pearl Street facility shared with Rice & Steele 911 and the Owatonna Police Department. Construction started this year on an addition to the Detention Center on Alexander Street in Owatonna.
911 Center administrator Brian Becker told Rice County officials that when he started in February, he realized the current space wasn’t working. While set up for four consoles, the facility has seven set up in tight quarters.
“One of the spaces was on just a folding table,” he said. “The other two spaces were on some desks that were not ergonomically correct.”
The kitchen and bathrooms were also moved off the main floor to create more floor space for dispatch, and administration was moved down a level, “which is not as operationally appropriate,” he said.
Also driving the decision to move, Becker said, were the unknowns of the Pearl Street building. The City of Owatonna is looking at whether to build a Public Safety Center that would house its police and fire departments.
Becker said he is also in discussions with another county to be each other’s backup sites.
“That would save both counties by not having two locations,” he said, as well as sharing technology.
The move to Rice County–at an estimated cost of $2.7 million–would set the 911 center up with eight consoles and provide room for expansion.
One-time capital costs for the project, Becker said, would be split based on what each county would need to operate independently, while lease payments would continue at the 65%-35% split with Rice County paying more based on population.