Mike Hall, 911 director, explains advantages of property purchased by the Marion County Emergency Services Board for the future home of the 911 center.
(C-P photo/Amanda Stratford)
February 2, 2006
By DANNY HENLEY
Of the Courier-Post
Following an extensive search, the Marion County Emergency Services Board has settled on a site for its new 911 center. On Wednesday the board announced that its new building will be located just inside the northern edge of Hannibal.
Last month, the board voted to pay $115,000 to Mary Lou Callicott of Hannibal for 17.66 acres of undeveloped land. The land is adjacent to the northbound lanes of U.S. 61, next to the J. Thad Ray Memorial Wildlife Area.
“We are very pleased that the location exceeds all of our site requirements that we set out to achieve,” said Mike Hall, 911 director. “It will be a very pleasant and secure location for our employees to provide 911 emergency services for the county.”
One of the property’s pluses is its location.
“One of our objectives was to stay within the city. It wasn’t a mandatory requirement, but it’s definitely advantageous to be in the city,” said Hall. “We found a site that give us the best of both worlds. It’s in the city, but it’s not really in a city-type environment. We’re very happy with that.”
Access to the site, which is between Farm Credit Services and the conservation area, will not be an issue.
“There is an existing crossover. It’s authorized MoDOT access to our property, which is a big help,” said Hall.
The toughest aspect of the board’s decision was not the cost of the land, but the amount of property it had to purchase, reports Hall.
“We struggled with having more land than we absolutely needed. However, the other sites we were looking at were in the $20,000 to $35,000 an acre range or higher,” he said. “For what we would have spent on four acres, we were able to purchase all of the Callicott property.”
After further consideration, the 911 Board no longer views the purchase of more property than was needed as a disadvantage, according to Hall.
“We won’t have to worry about our neighbors, either residential or commercial, being upset with our antennas or security fencing. Plus, in all the other locations we looked at, we ran the risk of a new business moving in nearby that might pose a future, unknown hazard, such as a filing station or something like that,” he said. “With the Callicott property, we’re going to be very well insulated from that happening in the future, and it’s not costing any additional money.”
The architectural design phase of the project began in January.
“We plan on having the design completed and ready to present to the board by March. At that time we should know the exact size and cost of the new building,” Hall said, adding that a public meeting to discuss the building’s design will be announced in February.
Hall does not foresee construction beginning until early summer, “barring any unforeseen delays or problems.” Construction of the building is expected to take a year, adds Hall.
The search for a suitable site has been underway for over a year. During that time over 30 potential sites were evaluated by the board.
“When we went to the media asking for the public’s help, we were overwhelmed. We received a lot of really good input from many sources,” Hall said in a press release.
Early last year Martin Meyer of Architechnics, Inc., was brought on board to conduct a site selection study. According to Hall, the board focused its attention on the top three sites identified in the study. The decision to purchase property was delayed as the board conducted interviews for engineering and design services.
Last spring, seven architectural firms were interviewed and in July the contract was awarded to Poepping, Stone, Bach and Associates. Scott Bach, a professional engineer from PSBA’s Hannibal office, was named the project manager.
With the design firm chosen, the board’s attention shifted back to finding a location.
“There were several sites in the original study that would have worked well for us, but none of them stood out as the best site. We had evaluated over 20 sites, but we felt the right site was still out there – we just hadn’t discovered it yet,” said Hall. “The board decided to take as much time as necessary to find the best one and that’s when they asked me to put our message out to the public one more time.”
Callicott contacted the 911 Board after reading of its land search in a newspaper article.
This was not the first time that Callicott’s land had been under consideration by the board. Approximately a year earlier the board had eliminated the property from its list of potential sites because of its cost. She also was offering a larger tract of land than was needed.
When the two sides resumed their discussions, Callicott proposed a more acceptable price, according to Hall.
Following Bach’s initial inspection of the Callicott property, he was not optimistic that it would meet the board’s needs, citing the fact that it is wooded and has three small, dry ravines running through it. Upon further analysis, however, Bach reported that there were over five acres of land that would be “perfect” for the communications center.
Last September, Hall recommended the board make an offer to Callicott for the property. The board voted to begin additional tests on the property and to draft a purchase offer.
It was at about this time new land opportunities were presented to the board. A developer offered to sell land in the county. Two other locations were proposed for free or at a very low cost.
In October, the board voted to delay closing on the Callicott property until after the new land leads had been explored. By the board’s December meeting it was clear that none of the new options would be suitable.
“That was disappointing because we were hoping that one of the free locations would work. When we heard this news it felt like we might have to start the search over from the beginning,” said Hall.
After learning that the Callicott property was still available, and its price had been reduced by an additional $5,000, the board voted to purchase it.
“In all, I believe we ended up looking at over 30 different locations before choosing the Callicott site,” Hall said, “and it is by far the best overall location that we had found.”
Hall thanked Callicott for her cooperative spirit.
“Her desire to work with us is really what made this happen,” he said. “She lowered her asking price $70,000 from the first time we spoke with her and that really helped.”
Hall also expressed appreciation to other entities which aided the board during its search process.
“The board would like to thank the city of Hannibal and Palmyra, the Marion County Ambulance District, the assessor’s office, and local real estate agents, businesses, news media and citizens who have assisted us over the past year in our search for land,” he said. “We couldn’t have done this without everyone’s help.”
Marion County 911’s dispatch operation is currently located in the basement of the Hannibal Police Department, where it processes all 911 calls and provides public safety emergency dispatching services for the city of Hannibal, the Marion County Ambulance District, the Hannibal Rural Fire Department and the Marion County R-II Fire District.