Commissioner Murman quoted in this WUSF news article on public safety complex opening:
Hillsborough Public Safety Complex Breaks Ground
Across from the Central Hillsborough Water Treatment Facility in Brandon is a few acres of upturned dirt littered with the beginnings of a construction project that county officials hope will help them better handle natural disasters.
Ground was broken Thursday morning for the Public Safety Operations Complex, a 52,000-square-foot facility that will replace Hillsborough County’s Fire Rescue Headquarters andEmergency Operations Center, both located on Hanna Avenue in Tampa.
“Four hurricanes in a row in 2004 were vivid reminders that we are completely surrounded by water and we have to take that as important reminder to all of us,” said Sandra Murman, chairman of the Board of County Commissioners.
“Hurricane preparedness is going to be a way of life for Floridians and that’s what our emergency operations center does such a good job at in getting the word out. It’s not just a seasonal occurrence. I know we hype it up for June 1, but it’s all year long.”
Those same hurricanes are what made the need for a new facility so apparent, said the county’s new Fire Rescue Chief, Dennis Jones.
Jones recalls many uncomfortable nights spent in the current emergency operations and fire rescue buildings, which are 23 years old, cramped and equipped with outdated technology.
“I personally spent a lot of long hours – 24, 48, 72 hours at time – sleeping on the floor in a facility that was really not designed to manage the emergencies we were dealing with at the level we were trying to deal with them,” Jones said.
