Pending dotting of the I’s and crossing of the T’s, a closing could take place within 45 days of the former Comvest Building - most recently the home of Precision Oil - at Charles Pointe. The new property owner is the Harrison County Commission, acquiring the structure to be utilized as the new 911 Center. 

 

“I think we can make it work,” said Paul Bump, director of Harrison/Taylor 911 Center. “We’ve been torpedoed so many times in this process. I do think we can make this work.”

 

The roadblocks which Bump spoke of have taken place over the course of recent years after Bump and County Commissioner Ron Watson attended the Homeland Security Conference in Florida and thereafter toured 911 centers and recommended standards for a proposed new center.

 

“We spent the next couple of years trying to find a good location,” Watson said. 

 

The first proposed location was what Watson refers to as The Quarry property, located along West Virginia Route 24/2, Murphy Run Road, Summit Park. More than $800,000 was invested in architectural/design work for the proposed 21,000-square-foot, two-story center which would sit on the 15-acre site.

 

The Commission also considered property located in Clarksburg’s Pinnickinnick section, just off U.S. Route 50 in the vicinity of Minard’s Spaghetti Inn and Tolley Electric. But that plan “fizzled out,” Watson said, due to issues with undermining. 

 

“We bought about 200 acres for $1,100 an acre and now it’s projected that a gas-powered power plant will go in there and we’re moving forward with that – selling most of the acreage at $10,000 per acre so that’s a win-win,” Watson said.

 

With a projected cost between $2.1 and $2.2 million, the Comvest building provides about 9,000 less square footage than the building designed by WYK Associates for the Quarry Property. Though Commissioners David Hinkle and Bernie Fazzini voted in favor of the Comvest Building, Watson was not in agreement, he said. 

 

“I personally don’t think the building will serve us well, but the other two commissioners think it will,” he said. “I think we’re getting lesser building and when it’s over with, it’s about the same amount of costs. I don’t really think we’re saving taxpayer dollars.”

 

Watson said it’s been a long process and now that the Commission is down to the “11th hour,” a plan change is implemented.

 

“I just didn’t vote for the change,” he said. “We gave birth to a baby and after seven years, we’re going to adopt it out. We had invested about $800,000 in engineer and design work and were to the point of awarding the contract. 

 

The proposed new building would have offered a lot more options for growth, Watson said.

 

Maybe I just couldn’t be objective about another plan,” he said.

 

Despite Watson’s personal views, he understands the process and will work with his fellow commissioners as the project moves forward.

 

“I’m sure we’ll be able to make it work, but I don’t feel it’s the right location,” he said. “It’s certainly less square footage than the other building.  I’m sure it will meet the immediate needs. I’m just not sure about the future.”

 

Having already consolidated with Taylor County, the current 911 Center – located in Nutter Fort – has an interoperable radio system and has already served as a model in the state of West Virginia. 

 

“When there were some issues in Monongalia County and the 911 Center went down, we actually dispatched Mon County from Harrison County," Watson said.

 

There’s a chance that in the future, the center could dispatch calls for other counties, as well, he said.

 

Bump - who has served as director of the 911 center for 32 years – weighed in on his thoughts as to what constitutes an efficient center. 

 

“To make a center most efficient, you need redundant creature comforts – multiple power, battery backup and redundant heating – ability to an additional source if the primary one fails,” he said. “You also have to take care of employees, have a secure area where they can eat, drink, sit down and decompress during a shift or work rotation.”

 

The center doesn’t have to be “Fort Knox,” but it’s also ideal not to be located along the main corridor of a community. 

 

“You want to be as removed as you can, but at the same token not so far out that employees cannot get to work or you can’t get help when needed – being close to police and fire assistance and that kind of thing,” Bump said. 

 

In that regard, the Charles Pointe location is good, situate in close proximity to the FBI, North Central West Virginia Airport and United Hospital Center.

 

There is enough property to expand the center in the future, Bump said.

 

The center is manned 24 hours a day, seven days a week with as many as 10 to 12 operators/administrative personnel on shift at the same time. 

 

“We typically have five to seven operators, but as many as eight or nine with maybe three or four admins,” Bump said. 

 

Before working out of Nutter Fort, the 911 Center was located at Clarksburg’s Perry Mines/Edgewood section.