Broad swath of Summit County 911 dispatch operations combines under one roof in Tallmadge

On Tuesday, dispatch and 911 emergency calls from much of northern Summit County will be routed to a new, state-of-the art center on North Avenue in Tallmadge.

But on Friday, it was time to celebrate an idea 20 years in the making that led to the reworking of the Weaver Workshop building.

Summit County Executive Ilene Shapiro and mayors from participating communities gathered for the event just days before the center is due to go live.

There were speeches and tours of the facility, along with a general consensus that the Summit Emergency Communications Center would improve 911 and dispatch services for the communities it serves.

Summit Emergency Communications Center took time, collaboration

To make the $11.2 million project happen, the county and several cities coordinated and collaborated, signing an agreement to move forward in February 2022.

"[We] all came together and made today happen, and it was no easy feat," Summit County Executive Ilene Shapiro said in comments at the ceremony.

In a phone interview Thursday, Tallmadge Mayor David Kline said he began working on the concept of a modern, unified center a couple decades ago while Christopher Grimm was still mayor.

"It didn't go too far," he said.

An idea that found an audience, took shape

But the idea was just too good to die, culminating in the gathering Friday and beginning of operations on Tuesday.

"This is really how government should work together," Kline said. "It's just a good collaboration of so many different agencies."

The Summit Emergency Communications Center combines dispatch operations for the areas covered by the Summit County sheriff, Tallmadge, Akron, Cuyahoga Falls, Stow, Fairlawn and Copley. It serves about 300,000 of the county's 540,000 residents, according to an estimate from the Summit County Executive's Office.

The center is located in one of the smaller buildings on the site of the old Weaver School and Workshop. Demolition is underway on the main building on the property, the Weaver School, where the Summit County Developmental Disabilities Board was housed until May.

Repurposed building: Demolition underway at Weaver School in Tallmadge as Summit DD site ends five-decade run

Center built to serve entire county

Shapiro said Friday she hopes all communities in the county will eventually join the center.

"It is built to have all of Summit County in there," she said.

Shapiro said the center is also built to incorporate new technologies. In the near future, she said, communications between residents and 911 operators will evolve, improving the effectiveness of responses.

"You'll be able to text to them a picture of what's going on," she said.

Sheriff Kandy Fatheree said meetings to establish the center and define its capabilities were extensive.

"We have met so many times and put a lot of thought [into this]," she said. "... This is a major event."

What it's like inside the center

The center includes a central room for Akron dispatch operations with 20 workstations. LCD displays include a screen with 25 CCTV camera views and another that displays weather and emergency-call information.

A separate area includes the operations of other communities participating in the project. Other areas include a break room, a workout area and an off-limits chamber where servers are located.

Angie Mack, dispatch supervisor, said moving to the center is bittersweet for some dispatchers who enjoyed working in their old offices.

"[But] we all care about our communities," she said. "We care about the quality of service we provide."

David O'Neal, director of the center, said there have been bumps along the way to its opening, but the result will be better with more efficient operations.

"The fact that we're here today is amazing," he said.

Leave a message for Alan Ashworth at 330-996-3859 or email him at aashworth@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @newsalanbeaconj.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: State-of-the-art 911 dispatch center opens for many Summit communities