Kyle Pierson, Chief Financial Officer for WVU Medicine Camden Clark Medical Center, and Shawn Marshall, Ambulance Service Manager and Paramedic for Camden Clark Ambulance Service, look over one of the computer assisted dispatch stations (CADS) Thursday at the new Wood County 911 Center. Officials hope to have the center open and operating in early August. (Photo by Brett Dunlap)

PARKERSBURG — Officials are tentatively scheduling the opening of the new Wood County 911 Center in early August.

Wood County officials, representatives of WVU Medicine Camden Clark Medical Center, Camden Clark Ambulance Service, St. Joseph’s Ambulance Service and others toured the 18,000-square-foot facility at the former Suddenlink building near Interstate 77 and U.S. 50 Thursday morning.

Wood County 911 Director Mike Shook said they are hoping “to flip the switch” on Aug. 1 to move operations to the new center from where they have been at the old 911 center on Core Road. However, that will depend on getting the building’s systems in place.

A lot of the building’s furniture is expected to arrive in June. An array of antennas is expected to be installed soon onsite as well as the building’s specialized phone system.

“We are just waiting our turn,” Shook said of the phone installation which is being done by a company in the southern United States which will happen over June and July and possibly into August.

Wood County 911 Director Mike Shook at the new Wood County 911 Center dispatch room. Officials hope to have the new center open and operating in early August. (Photo by Brett Dunlap)

The visitors saw various offices, the training area, the emergency operations center, the dispatching room, the server room, the storage area and more. The county voting machines are being planned to be stored at the facility along with evidence the Wood County Prosecutor has to maintain, other records and more. Local ham radio operators will also have a place in the building to operate if a situation occurs where they will be utilized to carry out emergency communications.

They saw the dispatch room with the consoles dispatchers will be working from. The room currently has eight computer assisted dispatch stations (CADS) set up compared to the six Wood County 911 is currently using at Core Road.

Wood County Sheriff Rick Woodyard said they have room to put five more CADS in the dispatch room if needed.

Discussions have been happening at the state level about the possibility of consolidating areas together into regional 911 centers statewide, officials said, adding many of the surrounding counties could be dispatched from the center if the state goes that route.

Plans are to have 10 active CADS in place by the time the center opens, Woodyard said.

Shook said they will have the other three CADS placed in other parts of the building in case they run into another COVID-like situation where people may have to distance themselves from each other in order to maintain operations.

A backup 911 Center is being planned for the Wood County Resiliency Center. Until the center is completed, the backup site will be at the Core Road facility.

The new center will be three times the size of the current center on Core Road, the equipment is state of the art and dispatchers will have multiple screens to work off, the dispatchers will be spread out more and the open spaces will be an improvement for them, Shook said.

Officials originally had hoped the center would be up and running by the end of May, but there were issues that had to be addressed following inspections by the West Virginia Fire Marshal’s Office. Officials felt different inspectors saw different things which kept delaying them being able to occupy the building. The county now has its certificate of occupancy and is moving forward with getting the building finished.

“We are pretty much at the mercy of vendors right now,” Shook said.

Brett Dunlap can be reached at bdunlap@newsandsentinel.com