The city of Elgin’s Emergency Operations Center is in the basement of the Robert Gilliam Municipal Complex.
In that room, there is no cellphone service, no radio communication capability, no backup generator, no video conferencing and no ability to stream live footage from a drone or camera. It’s rarely used in emergencies, officials say.
Elgin Fire Chief Robb Cagann wants that changed. This week he will ask the Elgin City Council to spend $826,000 on a mobile emergency operations unit that will give his emergency response and management team access to all the modern technology needed when there is a significant incident in the city.
The 42-foot-long vehicle would be built to order and comes with four slide-outs, Cagann said. “When we park this thing and open it up, it’s massive,” he said.
Technology-wise, it will have telescoping cameras providing a bird’s eye view of areas, Wi-Fi, internet access to provide news feeds, six work stations, and a conference room, he said.
What they are using right now — instead of the basement Emergency Operations Center — is the dispatcher communications room, which “is a less than ideal location for coordinating the activities of multiple departments or agencies while 911 emergency communications personnel are fielding calls and dispatching public safety personnel and equipment,” city documents on Cagann’s proposal said.
“The (existing emergency center), because of its location and lack of appropriate technology, is not conducive to efficiently and effectively running a coordinated emergency response, nor is it suitable for serving as a coordination point for planned community events,” documents said.
Council members will be briefed on the request at Wednesday night’s meeting and are expected to cast a preliminary vote.
Its versatility would be useful for community events that result in an emergency, Cagann said. He cited the 2018 Fourth of July fireworks show as an example.
“That night, we had a drowning when the fireworks were ended,” he said. “What we didn’t have was a good ability to switch from a planned community event to an emergency response event. This will help us do that far more seamlessly. We’ll all be there to be able to switch on a dime and run an emergency out of there.”
Funding would come from Ground Emergency Medical Transportation revenue, which the city receives from the federal government for providing medical transportation services for Medicaid patients.
Not only would a mobile emergency center be more versatile and cost-effective than having a designated room, it could be used by several city departments, officials said. Police could access it when there’s a big accident or other large event and it would benefit the public works department when there’s a water main break.
The shared vehicle would be housed by the fire department because it has available space, Cagann said.
“We are initiating it, but this is a joint effort between police and fire,” he said. “This is not a fire or police vehicle. It’s a city of Elgin vehicle.”
Gloria Casas is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.
