Portage EMA prepares new headquarters to respond to emergencies
Portage County will have more space to respond to emergencies once a new center opens to host all functions of the county's Emergency Management Agency.
Portage County Emergency Management Director Ryan Shackelford said the building at 2970 state Route 59 in Ravenna Township will replace the agency's administrative headquarters on Infirmary Road. The 6,120-square-foot building will serve as a one-stop shop for emergency response.
The $4.1 million building is being funded with federal American Rescue Plan Act dollars. Construction began in August and is scheduled to be done in September 2024. Summit Construction is the contractor on the project.
"Everything's going pretty smoothly," Shackelford said.
The facility will offer space where safety forces can plan for large-scale emergencies and conduct trainings.
The new command center is attached to an existing garage, which is being upgraded to provide climate-controlled storage and a drive-thru space that can be used for vaccinations and to distribute emergency supplies "right here in the heart of Portage County," Shackelford said.
What is the Emergency Management Agency?
The EMA coordinates local response to emergencies, including weather events and natural disasters. The agency also coordinated the county's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It hosts a Hazardous Materials Response Team and Urban Search and Rescue team, and also coordinates and trains first responders. It notifies the public of emergencies through its app, and social media pages called Portage Prepares.
Renovating existing space for 'specialty team assets'
Shackelford said the existing garage area hosts the EMA's "specialty team assets" such as the hazardous materials team, urban search and rescue and other outside organizations that share the space. The garage is being renovated to be climate-controlled, allowing materials to be stored properly to ensure that they are available when needed.
To illustrate the importance of climate control, Shackelford recalled that during the COVID-19 pandemic, the EMA had 14,000 masks that couldn't be used because the bands had dry rotted. Emergency workers had to repair the masks so they could be used.
"We were repairing masks, because there were none to be had," he said. "Everybody forgets that."
Because the area has large, overhead doors, Shackelford envisions the space being used as a drive-thru to distribute supplies to the community during an emergency, or to conduct drive-thru vaccination clinics.
Administrative headquarters
Shackelford said the addition will serve as an operations center to handle large scale emergencies, conduct training and host media briefings.
The concrete roof of the space is 10 to 12 inches thick, made to withstand wind events. High winds, he noted, have damaged the buildings on the property next to the site in the recent past.
The command center will feature an open floor plan, drop-down video screens for training, and a room for media briefings.
The new space, Shackelford said, will be more than double the 2,500-square-feet the agency now occupies.
"We were really undersized," he said.
Reporter Diane Smith can be reached at 330-298-1139 or dsmith@recordpub.com.
This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: Portage EMA prepares new headquarters to respond to emergencies
