By Greg Welter, Chico Enterprise-Record

Chico, Calif. — Police are hoping things go smoothly when they begin moving their 9-1-1 communications center out of a dark, cramped space in the middle of their building on Humboldt Road to a bright and airy room nearly twice as large.

Except for some technology updates, the current dispatch center, referred to as “the bunker,” looks much as it did when it was installed in the early 1980s.

Police Chief Mike Maloney said there were hopes the department could move out of its current 17,000- square-foot building, but city finances and recent issues with redevelopment funding scuttled that plan.

“We had to consider upgrades we could make within the existing space, and dispatch was the most critical,” Maloney said.

Several months ago, the department began transforming a large space just off the lobby, which was used as a classroom, into the new dispatch center.

On Wednesday, all the fixtures and cabinets were in place, and Monday has been targeted to begin moving over the existing computers, monitors, radios and other equipment.

Dispatch supervisor Nancy Wilson said the new center was specifically designed to accommodate equipment used now, and an upgrade called VIPER, which is just a few months away.

Instead of tangles of wires hanging down under work stations, which present a real puzzle for technicians who come in to work on the equipment, Wilson said wiring will run through encased areas leading to each work station, and be easily accessible under hinged covers.

All of the wires and connections will be labeled, she said, and the whole system can be expanded over the years, as needed.

The new center will have the same number of dispatch stations as the old, but employees will have a lot more room, and windows in the center will let in natural light.

Dispatchers will be able to walk outside to a patio, yet to come, to get fresh air and take a quick break something Maloney said just isn’t possible in the current location.

During the transition a period Maloney hopes could be as little as 48 hours police dispatchers will move to a training room in the building. Fire dispatchers will temporarily work out of the Cal Fire-Butte County facility in Oroville.

Within a few months, Wilson said, Chico dispatchers will upgrade to the VIPER system, and the new dispatch center was designed to accommodate it.

Among the advantages of the new system will be the ability to operate it from other locations if an emergency shuts down the center at the police station. She said servers at two off-site locations in the county can be accessed and used to operate dispatch centers for multiple departments.

Police in Oroville, Paradise and Gridley, as well as Cal Fire-Butte County, have the VIPER system now, and Chico, Chico State University and the Butte County Sheriff’s Office are due to get it.

The upgraded dispatch system will be paid for by a grant.

Converting the former classroom to the CPD dispatch center is being paid for by set-asides in the Chico Police Department budget and other sources, Maloney said.

The budget was set at $175,000, but Maloney said the final cost will slightly exceed that. 

Chico Police Chief Mike Maloney talks to Police Administrative Services manager Jaime Veglia about the move into the new dispatch center on Wednesday.(Ty Barbour/Staff Photo) All Chico E-R photos are available here .

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