Iredell County Public Safety Complex Gets New Home, More Space
After more than a year of construction, county emergency workers began moving into the newly completed Iredell County Public Safety annex in Statesville on Monday. The fire marshal, emergency management, emergency medical services and emergency communications are settling into their new $17.3 million space, on Bristol Drive beside the county agriculture building.
Construction started August 2017 and remained on schedule despite bad weather, officials said. Construction was complete in October 2018.
The fire marshal and emergency management operating out of the building, project manager David Saleeby said. Other departments are still working on making the transition.
EMS will be fully moved in the last week of January, and emergency communications will be operational by May 1.
Saleeby said the technical aspects of the emergency communication means that it is more complicated and involved to move that group.
Emergency management director Kent Greene said most of the offices in the building are operational.
“It’s nice to have a new space,” Greene said. “The office before this was a hundred years old, and that comes with a lot of maintenance.”
Emergency Management and the fire marshal previously worked out of a building on South Center Street.
The new building more than doubled the departments’ space, Greene said. There’s more storage and a larger emergency operation center as well as better technology.
Greene said having the different departments in the same building will make both day-to-day and emergency communication easier.
“If the three managers have to meet, we have the ability to just walk down the hall rather than having to schedule a time to meet in someone’s smaller-than-necessary conference room,” Greene said.
The complex spans 16 acres. The construction company was Edifice Construction of Charlotte.
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