An anticipated 20,000-square-foot Starkville storm shelter project has been scaled down to half of its original size, Oktibbeha County Emergency Management Agency Director Shank Phelps said.
Officials are still in the design phase of the project and hope to begin construction next year, but Phelps said population requirements associated with federal grant funding forced a redesign for the facility.
Now, he said, a roughly 10,000-square-foot structure is expected to be built at a portion of county-owned land near Industrial Park Road and Lynn Lane.
“We’re still looking at a building that will hold more than 1,600 people. We’re on the right path now, we need it and I’m really looking forward to having it,” Phelps said.
Work to secure Federal Emergency Management Agency funding for the project began in 2014 under the guidance of former OCEMA Director Jim Britt. First estimated to cost $4.2 million, County Administrator Emily Garrard said the scaled-down storm shelter could cost about $2 million.
Grant funding will pay the lion’s share of the cost, but the county is expected to match about 10 percent — or $200,000 — of the total price.
Last year, Britt said board-approved preliminary work, in-kind services and the land donation would count toward Oktibbeha County’s share of the cost.
The redesign process could conclude before the end of the year, but winter rains could push construction back into the spring, Phelps said.
“We just hope everything moves forward quickly so we can get to a point where we see progress,” he said. “If I had to guess at a potential end-of-construction date, I’d say the middle or the end of 2017.”
OCEMA enjoying new home
Three weeks after moving into the second floor of the County Education Building, Phelps said OCEMA employees have settled into their new home.
Oktibbeha supervisors previously approved the move and about $500,000 in new equipment earlier this year, retrofitting the former home of the county school district for emergency management and 911 usage.
The move took OCEMA and county 911 services out of the Oktibbeha County Jail, a building that offered inadequate space and storage for its dual role.
“Most of the time when you flip a switch like that, there’s going to be a problem or a hiccup here or there. This move, however, went really smooth. There were no hang-ups,” Phelps said. “It’s a 300 percent turnaround from where we were and a huge morale boost for everyone that works here. All the credit goes to the board of supervisors for letting us move up here.”
The former meeting room for the former Oktibbeha County School District Board of Trustees was converted into large operations center that will be utilized during times of natural and man-made disasters, while a storage vault that previously housed sensitive documents now contains the county’s emergency communications system.
The 911 center was furnished with all new equipment, modernizing dispatchers’ workstations and conditions. Two other offices are available for other county, state and federal officials during times of crisis, Phelps said.
The Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District utilizes the bottom half of the County Education Building for support services.
Carl Smith covers Starkville and Oktibbeha County for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter @StarkDispatch
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