Preparing for disaster
County breaks ground on $4.87 million emergency operations center
A rendering shows the new Anderson County Emergency Operations Center planned for 288 Frank L. Diggs Blvd. in Clinton. Officials broke ground for the approximately 12,000-square-foot, $4.87 million facility Wednesday, Sept. 23. Construction is expected to be completed in July 2027. (photo:Rendering submitted )
The Anderson County Emergency Operations Center will be at 288 Frank L. Diggs Blvd. in Clinton, with about 12,000 square feet.
It will include a room for different agencies to coordinate responses to disasters like large scale floods, fires, winter storms and nuclear catastrophes.
Another space will be for training, and still other spaces will give people involved a kitchen and sleeping areas in case disaster responses stretch late.
The new facility will replace the current EOC building at 111 S. Charles G. Sievers Blvd. The building will also support offices and areas for the media.
Local officials lifted their shovels for a groundbreaking ceremony on Wednesday Sept. 23. Grading work on the site was already underway.
Anderson County Mayor Terry Frank said the new EOC will be ready by July 27.
Why a new EOC?
Joseph Mead, director of the Anderson County Emergency Management Agency, which will be in charge of the EOC, explained that although his agency is not directly in charge of the county’s ambulances and fire trucks, it can coordinate responses to large-scale disasters among the agencies that are.
ACEMA has plans for handling such emergencies in the county, and Mead said it’s prepared to implement them when necessary.
Some plans come from other agencies, like the one for when Norris Dam breaks for instance, which comes from the Tennessee Valley Authority.
However, ACEMA maintains it, and would be responsible for local agencies putting it into action. ACEMA also has plans for dealing with hurricanes, tornadoes, flooding, winter storms and other weather.
At the event, Frank also listed train derailments and nuclear disasters in Oak Ridge.
ACEMA can send people into the field to coordinate with fire departments, police, ambulance and highway department agencies. It can also give these agencies equipment.
“Think of it like air-traffic control but not for airplanes, for first responders,” he said. “We make sure everybody has the space that they need to do what they need to do and the equipment to get that done.”
He said having an EOC like the current one on Charles G. Sievers Boulevard or the new one on Frank L. Diggs Drive helps different agencies coordinate responses by letting everyone meet in the same place.
Frank told reporters at the event that these agencies meeting at the EOC include state, andfederal governmental entities, along with the American Red Cross and local agencies like the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office and Anderson County Emergency Medical Services, which provides ambulances.
The current EOC’s room for strategizing during emergencies is laid out like a classroom with rows of desks.
Mead said it could get noisy, with everyone talking to everyone at once.
The future EOC’s layout will instead allow for related agencies to break off more easily into groups and talk to each other separately from everyone else.
Also the current facility lacks the kitchen and rest areas for long responses, which the new EOC will have.
The new center will also allow for better training before disaster even takes place. The current EOC’s training area can support about 20 people while the new one can hold around 40.
In addition to these issues, the new one-story center will be better accessible to people with disabilities than the current two story one, which requires stairs to access the EOC and training rooms.
Mead also said it will feature new technologies. A large video wall can show multiple streams from different cameras around the county like the Tennessee Department of Transportation as well as ACEMA.
Mead said it will allow for live monitoring of winter storm conditions and better planning for ambulance services on icy roads, for example.
Funding
A news release stated $2,942,940 of the $4,870,000 project will come to the county from the 2024 Emergency Operations Center Grant Program from the state of Tennessee, Department of Military, and Tennessee Emergency Management Agency, consistent with investments approved for Tennessee by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
County Finance Director Robert Holbrook stated the remaining funds came from a part of the county’s general fund restricted for capital projects.
“Truly it’s not cliché to say teamwork works,” Frank said, regarding the different partnerships and contributions involved. “When we come for the ribbon-cutting for the new facility, it’s just going to be absolutely amazing.”
Clinton City Manager Roger Houck said the new EOC’s further distance from Oak Ridge gave it a safe distance if ACEMA was dealing with an Oak Ridge nuclear disaster.
Fire station
The city of Clinton plans to locate a fire station on the same property in the future.
Anderson County is constructing the facility in alignment with an intergovernmental agreement between Clinton and Anderson County, as the property belongs to the city.
Houck said the city will build the fire station “probably within in the next five years.” However, he said the Clinton firefighters at the new station will likely share the EOC’s living quarters for first responders, including the kitchen and showers, and the center was designed with the Clinton Fire Department’s needs in mind.
“As the area grows and we get more housing, more apartments and new businesses in, from a safety standard it will be nice to have a station up here,” Houck said.
