A subcommittee of the Cass County Public Safety Commission is scheduled to explore a building which potentially could serve as a new 9-1-1 Center. The committee will gather 8-a.m. Monday, Oct. 14^th, at the former Rutherford/Knuth Law Offices on east 7^th Street, next to Nishna Valley Cycle.

Possible location of Cass Co. 9-1-1 Center (Ric Hanson/photo)

Cass County E-911 Director Rob Koppert says the building is a decent size, and while the Commission is exploring the option of privatizing Emergency/Public Safety services, there isn’t a lot of time left to act on that particular aspect, because of the current space and equipment needs. He says equipment and requirements for the Next Generation 9-1-1 systems the County needs to upgrade will also mean updating an 18-year old radio console/system, which runs on Windows 2000. The system was designed with a life expectancy of 12-years.

Rear view of the building.

Koppert says the Commission is looking for a building that can be used not only for the new 9-1-1 and radio equipment, but some offices to free up more space at the courthouse, which is already very cramped. He says the building is capable of housing the Emergency Operations Center (EOC), as well as the Emergency Management and E-911 Director’s offices. The Commission he says has been looking at several buildings because the equipment still needs to be ordered and installed before the current equipment fails.

The Knuth Building is a two-story structure.