Sandy Murman

MIKE SALINERO | The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 31, 2011

http://www2.tbo.com/news/news/2011/aug/31/menewso3-hillsborough-approves-ar-254213/

Just days after Irene ravaged the East Coast, Hillsborough County administrators used the proposition of a hurricane hitting the Tampa Bay area to sell county commissioners on the need for a $31.4 million public safety complex.

Commissioners voted 6-0 to build the complex, which will house emergency operations, fire-rescue headquarters and training, code enforcement and the county’s main computer servers, all in a hurricane-hardened building.

The county will borrow most of the money for the complex through a bond issue with annual debt payments of $1.78 million. Payments will be made with receipts from the communications services tax.

County Administrator Mike Merrill had made the complex a priority in his fiscal 2012 budget. He ran into resistance, however, from commissioners who questioned making such a large expenditure during a time of economic hardship.

So Merrill decided to make his case by squeezing commissioners and about 130 county employees into the present emergency operations center for a mock hurricane drill.

Emergency Management Director Preston Cook ran a video that, in faux documentary fashion, showed the impact of a Category 5 hurricane coming ashore in Tampa Bay.

“I didn’t want to dramatize it,” Merrill said, “but I wanted to make it as real as I can because I think it’s important enough.”

The sobering images of destruction in the video and the claustrophobic conditions in the 20-year-old emergency operations center seemed to wilt whatever concerns commissioners still had about the project.

“We’re here to protect and inform the people of Hillsborough County what’s going to happen if a hurricane happens,” said Commissioner Les Miller, who made the motion to build the complex. “The No. 1 thing we need to look at is the 1.2 million people we represent.”

The complex will be on county-owned land on Columbus Drive near Falkenburg Road.

A core building housing the operations center and computer system will be between 74,000 and 90,000 square feet and cover more than 20 acres. An auxiliary building will be more than 18,000 square feet.

The new buildings will be able to withstand a Category 5 hurricane, a storm with sustained winds greater than 155 mph. The current, 16,000-square-foot emergency operations center is built to withstand a category 2 hurricane with winds up to 110 mph.

Commissioner Sandy Murman asked Merrill to look at having a private business build the complex and lease it to the county.

Merrill agreed to look at a public-private partnership, but said the county can borrow money for construction at a much lower interest rate than businesses.

County officials want to have the complex finished when the 2013 hurricane season begins. Cook, the emergency management director, said the commission’s quick action confirmed his reasons for taking the job in June.

“This county understands preparedness,” Cook said. “This confirms that I came to the right place.”