Call space

MOSES LAKE — The Multi Agency Communications Center (MACC) is moving closer to moving into its new 9,776-square foot Emergency Communications Center at 208 South Hamilton Rd.

The building is in its completion stages and the target date to move operations into the new facility is November.

“We can’t just shut down for a day to move. It’s going to require a lot of work and that’s the concentration right now,” director Jackie Jones said. “It’s a big thing to move technology that we are currently using into the new center. We do have a backup center and it will be operating during the process. Once we move into the new center, the current facility will become our backup should something happen.”

The MACC handled close to 217,000 emergency and business calls last year, so the new facility will make a strenuous job less hectic. It will be almost triple in size as the facility on 32nd Avenue.

“We’ve basically outgrown our current facility,” Jones said. “The new center means better efficiency, especially for our dispatchers. Everything we do is in support of what the dispatchers do on the dispatch floor. We handle all the emergency and business calls in Grant County. Last year we had 61,000-plus 911 calls and 156,000 business line calls.

“Last year’s total dispatched events were over 83,000, so anything we can do to make that more efficiently is welcome.”

The dispatch staff is always in a state of readiness, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The new facility is an upgrade to how Grant County handles emergency situations.

“To do everything we do requires a lot of technology and that is one of the problems with our current facility is that we’ve outgrown our equipment room that houses all the brains. The computer-aided dispatch system, the phone system,” Jones explained. “Recently, we upgraded our phone system so we’re able to handle next generation 911 technology, which means being able to do text 911 calls, which is a pretty big deal when you consider there’s more than 5,500 communication centers across the United States and only 5 percent of them can text 911 calls.”

Grant County is keeping pace with the constant changes in emergency broadcast equipment and communications, which is tough to do when the center has outgrown its facility. Emergency calls in Grant County have increased annually, but remain consistent with other communities of 22,000 population.

The focus is on making the emergency calls a smoother operation, but the 9,700-square foot facility will provide more office space, conference rooms, and lounge areas for the 26-employee staff.