At the joint city and Ford County commission meeting on Monday, both commissions approved to relocating the Ford County Communications department, according to the Dodge City Daily Globe.
“After the tornados last year we started to look around to see where a better location for our emergency management and communications departments could be,” Ford County Communications director Elliot Linke told the Globe. “The Heartland Tower facility has recently been renovated by a data company to make it a workable and tech friendly site.”
“It is complete with generators, back up storage and is already prepped as a storm shelter.” Currently the department is located in the basement of the Ford County Government Center in the old Lora Locke Hotel, the Globe said.
The government center had to be shut down several times in the past year following severe storms and electrical outages.
“We are looking at it like a remodel of the current facility,” Linke told the Globe. “The county would absorb the cost because the department is under our jurisdiction.
“I personally looked at what it would take to remodel the current Gunsmoke location compared to moving the department and the move would cost much less as well as give us more continuity, which is something we need.” The county would be the new facility’s lone tenants.
February 17, 2017
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