By Jason Green Daily News Staff Writer, San Jose Mercury News (California)

Palo Alto’s communications center will temporarily relocate from the basement of City Hall to the Mobile Emergency Operations Center between Friday and Monday while that part of the building undergoes a seismic retrofit, the police department announced Monday.

The communications center, which handles 911 calls and provides 24-hour dispatch services for police, fire, utilities, public works and animal control, will operate as usual while housed in the Mobile Emergency Operations Center, though some routine calls for service may be delayed or rescheduled, police said.

“Our public safety dispatchers have been working in the MEOC environment in anticipation of this temporary relocation,” Technical Services Coordinator Charles Cullen said in a statement. “They have taken live 911 calls and dispatched personnel from the vehicle seamlessly.”

The Mobile Emergency Operations Center, a 40-foot-long vehicle outfitted with cutting-edge communications technology, will be parked in front of the police department from Wednesday to Monday. The 200 block of Forest Avenue will subsequently be closed to vehicle traffic between Bryant and Ramona streets.

The communications center will move back into the basement of City Hall when the seismic retrofit work is complete, police said.

The police department purchased the Mobile Emergency Operations Center in 2010 with a combination of public funds and grant money. It has been used during a number of large-scale, multi-jurisdictional events in the past year, including dignitary visits, the Cupertino quarry shooting and a major narcotics sting in Gilroy.

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