Emergency Operations Center To Be Built On Cattleman Road

Sarasota County's will soon move out of the basement of the County Administration Building and to Cattleman Road.

The County Commissioners approved the selection of 1301 Cattleman Road on county-owned property for the new operations center at the commission's Tuesday meeting. 

This was important to the commission because they didn't want to risk having a hurricane destroy a makeshift emergency operations center, WWSB reports: 

"With the 2012 hurricane season starting in 3 weeks, Sarasota County Commissioner Christine Robinson says she's holding her breath and hoping we don't get a big one.

“The EOC is extremely important for the safety of our community. We've been able to witness, with Charlotte County unfortunately enduring Hurricane Charley, the importance of having a safe EOC.  Charlotte County had to use our EOC when theirs blew away.  We don't want to find ourselves in the same situation.” 

The other option was 7060 Professional Parkway in Lakewood Ranch at an existing privately owned building.

Meanwhile, the county has discussed with Manatee County about consolidating emergency radio operations,

The county had to use a $1 million site specific federal grant by May 31 or it woudl lose that money and start the grant process over if another site was selected, according to county documents.

The county has a total of $1.3 million in grant funding considerations for the proejct, which will cost $12.6 million, according to county documents. Current funding can pay for design and permitting, but the rest will have to be figured out, said Ed McCrane, chief of the Emergency Operations Center.

The county plans to open the center in 2014.