PORT ANGELES – The city of Port Angeles is not ready to commit to moving the police and fire dispatch center to a proposed new county emergency operations center near the airport.
City manager Nathan West tells Newsradio KONP, his staff needs to research other possible places. He says, contrary to recent reports of talks about the move, the city hasn’t officially agreed. He expects to have a report to the city council on possible other locations in the coming weeks.
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“PenCom, as it’s managed by the city, is actually made up of multiple entities. It’s really important that all of them are on board with what we’re doing, that they’re comfortable with it, that we recognize and respect the fact that each of them have independent ratepayers that are contributing to the money that’s going into this. We want to make sure we’re diligent and looking at what new sites and facilities we could actually take advantage of in the future with a move, and ultimately we want to make sure it is a sustainable for the long term something that ultimately is affordable to all those user groups all those ratepayers.”
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Clallam County sheriff Bill Benedict has proposed moving the county’s emergency operations center into 15-thousand square feet of Port of Port Angeles space near Fairchild Airport formerly leased by Westport Yachts.
The county is seeking places to move its EOC from the basement of the courthouse, since it would most likely not survive a major earthquake.
Benedict says he thinks there is room for the city to move PenCom operations into the leased space. If PenCom doesn’t join, Benedict says they would not need the 15,000 square feet.
Benedict says the county is moving ahead with the move of the EOC regardless, but he hopes the city will join.
Pencom has outgrown its current location at the Port Angeles police department. City officials have said they need the space to better facilitate police department operations.
The city of Port Angeles operates PenCom dispatch through a series of contracts with local law enforcement and fire agencies.