Lyon County Emergency Communications Center Director Roxanne Van Gundy called her appearance before Lyon County Commissioners Thursday morning a “surreal day.”
Van Gundy’s appearance was in part to seek approval of bids from Evergreen Design/Build and Kansas Security for phase 2 construction of the county’s new Emergency Operations Center. When asked why the moment felt surreal, Van Gundy stated that as dispatchers, it can sometimes feel as though they are viewed as “secondary,” but that was not the case Thursday.
Commissioners approved both bids, totaling just over $3 million — $2.88 million for Evergreen and over $250,000 for Kansas Security — unanimously. The price of the facility, which will share space with the new law enforcement firing range, which was phase one of the project, has come under scrutiny in recent months; in fact, county commissioners had tabled the matter on one occasion due to a lack of information on the exact cost breakdown.
During Thursday’s presentation, Van Gundy stated that the cost of the facility and its overall design were developed with only “critical needs” in mind.
Commissioner Chris Bartel further illustrated this point, saying Thursday “This will not be a fancy facility.”
According to comments Thursday, construction could begin between June 1 and 15. The new facility will mean the move of emergency communications from the basement of White Auditorium, where it has been located for well over a decade, following the consolidation of Emporia Police and Lyon County Sheriff’s Office dispatch operations.
This was meant to be a temporary home for the department that has spanned 13 years. Commissioner Doug Peck called Thursday’s action an “awesome moment” and admits the matter should have been addressed far sooner, saying it had been “kicked down the road” on many occasions.
The cost of the project will be covered by a bond, approved earlier this year, which has a 10-year repayment period with annual installments of $600,000. Commissioner Peck reiterated during Thursday’s meeting and in an interview with KVOE News, the county will make those repayments through sales tax dollars not through county property tax dollars.
Before the bids were considered, commissioners also approved a three-year contract with Hyper to continue the Betty AI assistant program for handling non-emergency calls through the LCECC for the next three years at an annual cost of $32,000, a 30 percent discount due to the center being an early integrator of the system. According to Van Gundy, in the first 100 days since Betty was integrated into operations, the system has processed over 6,000 calls and has had a deflection rate of 25 percent, meaning questions were answered directly through Betty without having to be passed off to a human dispatcher.
This was the main purpose of Betty’s integration with Van Gundy, saying all calls to the center are important, emergency or not, but when it comes to serious emergencies, the fewer directions dispatchers have to be pulled in, the better.
Currently, Betty is equipped to handle 10 different call types, and Van Gundy says she would like to add another 10 in the near future, including processing burn requests. Ultimately, she says the goal is to have Betty capable of handling 60 percent of non-emergency calls coming through the center in the coming years.
Separate business for commissioners Thursday included a presentation from the Street Cats Club and approval of the purchase of 3 pickups for the Sheriff’s Office at a cost of almost $150,000 from Longbine Auto Plaza.
County commissioners will reconvene for their weekly meeting next Thursday at 9 am inside the Lyon County Courthouse Commission Chambers.
