Berrien County’s plans for a new 911 Dispatch Center in Buchanan are getting back on track.
The county last year purchased a building at 500 Circle Drive in Buchanan Township from American Electric Power with plans to construct a new 800-megahertz 911 tower there. Berrien County Administrator Brian Dissette tells us those plans hit a roadblock when historically significant artifacts were found at the site.
However, progress has been made with finding a new location for the tower.
“Over the last couple of weeks, working with Motorola, we were able to get a final sign off from the State Historic Preservation Office, or SHPO, and that’s a really important step,” Dissette said. “SHPO having signed off on our site, we can now proceed with working with the local unit of government on final permitting and lease agreements.”
Dissette says Buchanan Township has a public safety building nearly adjacent to the building at 500 Circle Drive, and the county is negotiating with the township to place the tower on that property. He believes construction could start next year. Then would begin the process of moving 911 Dispatch down to the former AEP building.
“Over the next year, we’re going to go through methodically and make improvements, to modernize the building to make it more inhabitable for our operations.”
Dissette notes the building is quite large, providing more space than 911 Dispatch would need. The county is looking at options for other uses for the building, which could include leasing part of it to another entity.
For now, the priority is the 911 tower so weak spots in the county’s signal coverage in Buchanan and Bertrand Township can be resolved.
