The Gloucester County Board of Supervisors agreed to hold off on making a decision to authorize the design and bidding out of work for the county’s Emergency Operations Center build-out during its Jan. 2 meeting in the colonial courthouse. The money for the design and bidding would come from the county administrator’s contingency fund.

A majority of board members said they felt there is just too much budget uncertainty based on other capital projects such as the new Page Middle School and the renovations to the T.C. Walker Educational Center looming on the horizon to make the commitment to the EOC at this time.

Public works staff has provided an estimated build-out cost of $635,000, which includes furnishing and technology to convert the vacant shell into a functioning EOC.

The county currently uses a portion of the sheriff’s office training room as the EOC. "It’s pretty tight quarters," said Gloucester’s director of public works Garrey Curry.

The board of supervisors voted in June 2010 to design a new emergency communications center (ECC) with an underlying shell space intended to be an EOC with future availability of funds.

In March 2011, the board authorized the county administrator to award the construction contract to build the ECC with underlying EOC shell space.

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