County’s disaster headquarters are small, old and vulnerable

Published 11:44 pm Sunday, September 16, 2007

EVERETT — The one building Snohomish County needs most when disaster strikes — its emergency response headquarters — might be too weak to survive an earthquake.

Not to mention that it’s too small, was built in the 1940s and has little or no security protection.

“It’s clearly a building we need to replace, so if we do have a major disaster, we don’t have to worry about our emergency facility falling down,” County Council chairman Dave Gossett said.

Officials say they want a new, two-story, $20 million state-of-the-art emergency operations center, and they hope the Legislature will agree to pony up $10 million for the project.

To win support for the funding, county emergency management director John Pennington is giving tours of the Paine Field building to all of Snohomish County’s state legislators.

“We’re showing them how antiquated the building is,” Pennington said. “What we have in place right now only addresses the actual needs for the county today. As the county grows over 20 years, we’ll hit a million people. To address our threats and population growth, we need a bigger building.”

The proposal for funding a new building has merit, but more study is needed before the state opens its checkbook, said state Rep. Dan Kristiansen, R-Snohomish, who represents the 39th legislative district.

King County and Seattle have facilities already, but “north of Seattle, what do we have? An asbestos box tied down to a concrete slab,” he said.

Even so, “$10 million is a large request. Most of the high capital budget payouts are $5-$7 million. $10 million is going over the top,” Kristiansen said.

In 2006, county officials began angling toward building a new emergency operations center after taking control of the once-independent Department of Emergency Management. The county budgeted about $3.3 million for studies and design work on a facility this year.

Consultants have suggested constructing a 22,000-square-foot building on the county’s Paine Field airport property. The new operations center would be a few blocks away from the existing building, and nearly three times larger.

Paine Field was the best of seven sites evaluated for a new building, according to a recent study.

“Paine Field is a logical location for an emergency operations center north of Puget Sound that can handle a catastrophic disaster,” Pennington said. The land has sturdy soils and the nearby runway allows the headquarters to receive emergency supplies.

The current building houses about a dozen county disaster management experts, who prepare for emergency events and oversee training and federal homeland security grants for firefighter and police equipment. When a flood strikes, up to 70 people fill the building, handling phone calls and coordinating sandbags, evacuations and rescues.

The new building is proposed to be built partially underground, meet modern standards and last the county up to 30 years. It also would have backup power, a sewage system and water storage.

It also could be a place for Snohomish or King counties to operate during a regional disaster.

“We need a contemporary facility that can address and respond to the greater needs of this county,” County Executive Aaron Reardon said. “A larger facility, more of a regional operations center, is what this county needs and we’ll continue to fund it accordingly.”

The county has included $15 million in its capital budget plans for 2007 and 2008 toward construction of a building, but has not taken the next steps to seek to spend the money.

With funding, the facility might be ready by December 2009.

That timeline would give disaster response experts a headquarters to use during the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, B.C., just in case, Pennington said.

Gossett said the county will seek grant funds from the state and federal government for the project and the county will pay for the rest.

He said a tax increase wouldn’t be necessary for the project and the price tag will be carefully considered.

“We’ve got to be realistic about what these things are going to cost,” he said.

Reporter Jeff Switzer: 425-339-3452 or jswitzer@heraldnet.com.