9-1-1 center seeks land for new site

New radio site for Moses Lake also part of land plan

MOSES LAKE - Grant County's 9-1-1 center is seeking the right piece of land to build a new dispatch center and radio site near Moses Lake.

During the center's board meeting Thursday, the center's Radio Communications Manager Dean Hane said he will speak with Big Bend Community College's Board of Trustees on Tuesday about acquiring some college-controlled land.

He said the center needs between two to three acres to accommodate its future plans.

The center currently shares a building at the National Guard armory and has no more space for added equipment expected with a new 9-1-1 system.

"This discussion is just about planting those seeds and preparing you for what we have to do," he said to the board.

During the meeting, he mentioned other areas of land near Moses Lake at Airway Heights, Potato Hill Road and Baseline Road. He said Baseline Road has no water or services. Property in the Airway Heights area is less expensive, he said.

Hane declined to go into specifics Friday about the college land's location because he had not met with trustees.

The new radio site is a priority because Moses Lake's radio antennas are on a water tank along Nelson Road. There's several limitations on placing antennas on the water tank, he said Friday.

The radio site would likely be completed within a year of the land purchase, with the new center two to three years out, he said.

The unstaffed radio sites are necessary because they're used when dispatchers dispatch calls to first-responders over a radio system.

The land will probably be paid for with money from a voter-approved sales tax passed in Grant County three years ago, he said.

"That's what we're spending it for, to improve 9-1-1 in Grant County," he said Friday.