Atlantic County dispatch center grows, will costs follow?

9-1-1 in a location that is not in a flood plain and allow the county’s municipalities to share the costs, said County Executive Dennis Levinson.

Construction is expected to begin in early 2016 on the building, which has increased from 36,000 square feet to 43,000 square feet. It will take a year and a half to two years to complete, and also will serve as Stockton University Police headquarters, Associate Vice President of Facilities & Construction Hudson said.

A licensed architect, Hudson and his staff are leading the project.

The school has pledged $4.8 million toward construction, and the county will pick up the rest of the estimated $17.2 million cost. Both approved moving forward with the project in 2013.

“We are in the programming stages,” Hudson said, which he described as meeting with the user groups and dissecting all of their specific needs for people, space and technology.

While the expanded size may increase costs, the ultimate price tag depends on the bids received.

Stockon trustees recently approved a resolution to pay up to an additional 10 percent if needed, Hudson said.

“It specifically gave the acting president (Harvey Kesselman) the authority to make the decision,” Hudson said. “He would have to go back to the board for more than a 10 percent increase.”

County Administrator Jerry DelRosso said Atlantic County expects to save $780,000 a year for the towns, if all 23 municipalities participate.

Municipalities provided information to the county, reporting they are now spending about $9.7 million a year to provide dispatch services. The figures provided cover mainly salaries and wages and benefits, DelRosso said. Many ancillary costs such as software maintenance and telephone services may not be included.

The centralized county dispatch plan would spend about $8.9 million a year on salaries and wages and ancillary costs, DelRosso said.

The bonded costs of buying equipment and constructing the building are not included, DelRosso said, since those costs were not provided by towns for comparison.

He said the county plan would use 148 employees, including dispatchers, call takers and supervisors.

He said the towns will be phased into using centralized dispatch over a period of many months to make sure everything runs smoothly.

L. Robert Kimball Architects and Engineers of Ebensburg, Pennsylvania., did a state-funded study in 2008 for Atlantic County, which found building a centralized dispatch center would be expensive up front but would save money over the long term. It is available online at aclink.org/oep/911study/index.asp/.

DelRosso said staff visited countywide dispatch centers in Camden, Gloucester, Burlington and Monmouth counties for advice and ideas. Cumberland County also runs a 9-1-1 center that serves all municipalities except Vineland.

The mayors of all Atlantic County municipalities have signed letters saying they intend to join county dispatch, but no legally binding contracts have been signed, DelRosso said.

Hamilton Township has asked for additional information on how it will save taxpayers’ money, said Township Administrator Mike Jacobs.

Jacobs said dispatch currently costs the township about $800,000 a year, which is offset by a payment of about $175,000 a year from Egg Harbor City, which pays to use the township’s dispatch.

Levinson said all municipalities will pay the capital costs for building the center and operational costs for running it, whether they use it or not.

“It’s in the general budget,” Levinson said. “So, consequently, if you are running your own dispatch you are paying for your own and also for the countywide system.”

The countywide dispatch system won’t have its own separate budget, like the county library and public health systems do, he said.

“We have been working on this at least from the time I was a freeholder,” said Levinson, who was on the board in the 1980s and 1990s before becoming executive in 2000.

“We believe this is the way to go. The county government is willing to absorb the cost and pass the savings to municipalities,” Levinson said, which will pay according to their ratable base.

“Remember, we’re also going to have a first-class facility,” he said. “The county will be far safer than now.”

Stockton’s Dan Cordle, a professional engineer, is the project manager, Hudson said.

“We’ve started to develop floor plans. That’s where Dan is now with the architect and county,” Hudson said of the proposed three-story building, along with a 5,000-square foot ancillary building.

SOSH Architects of Atlantic City and the international firm AECOM are handling the design. Marathon Engineering of Atlantic City is doing the Civil Engineering for it, and Epic Management of Piscataway, Middlesex County, is doing construction management.

Hudson estimated that 7,500 square feet would be for the Stockton police force’s specific use. The largest portion would be for the county dispatch, but there are also common areas such as the entryway, hallways, bathrooms, lounge and reception area, he said.

The center will hold about 50 dispatch terminals, he said, in a large room reminiscent of a NASA command center.

Hudson said he should have a good sense of the final size and look of the building in a month or two.

“Ultimately we’ll do modeling like we did for the new quad,” Hudson said. “We’ll do something like that for county dispatch — an animation of what it will look like.”

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