California’s Cal Fire and the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office will share a new $38.6 million dispatch center in Templeton, complete with a 140-foot tall tower housing 45 antennas. The Tribune reported that the facility would improve collaboration among the fire and sheriff’s offices when responding to emergencies.
Construction is slated to begin in the spring of 2023, with a fall completion date the following year. The project was awarded to Santa Maria-based Diani Building Corporation to design and build the center. The project is funded by money from the county’s General Fund, under Proposition 172, along with public facility fees for law enforcement and fire services. The county’s auditor-controller still must sell about $25 million in bonds to cover the rest of the project, reported The Tribune.
According to county documents, the station will operate as the “primary public safety answering point” and increase the “effectiveness and efficiency of public safety,” said Cal Fire Deputy Chief John Owens. Although the planned tower is needed to improve communication, some oppose the structure.
The Tribune reported that according to the environmental impact report, the tower would cause “significant visual impacts in the area,” disrupting scenic views. Community members also spoke out regarding the aesthetics of the tower.
The tower combines a 60-foot communications tower from the sheriff’s dispatch facility and an 80-foot tower from Cal Fire’s dispatch facility — so the new tower must be tall enough to accommodate all of that equipment, said county IT manager Paul Porter. “You still need that combined 140 feet worth of real estate space on the tower to mount everything,” he added.
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