Police and firefighters, and their emergency vehicles, from the White River Township and Bargersville fire departments, Johnson County Sheriff’s Office and the Center Grove Police Department will soon be under one roof, allowing quicker response times for emergencies in the area.
Center Grove Schools is building an Emergency Operations Center at 2812 S. Morgantown Road this fall, across from the high school, with completion slated for September 2020, Center Grove officials said.
White River Township, which covers much of the same area as Center Grove schools, is 47 square miles. The closest fire station to the site of the planned building is a Bargersville fire station, two miles away. The closest police station also belongs to Bargersville, 4.5 miles away. The Center Grove Schools Police Department is housed just south of the high school in the professional resource building.
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The cost of the project has been capped at $5.17 million, spokesperson Stacy Conrad said.
The Center Grove school board approved the purchase of a one-story office building and land at 2812 S. Morgantown Road, across the street from the high school, for the center. Center Grove will demolish the building on the property to make way for the center, but will likely keep the current garage in the back of the plot, White River Fire Chief Jeremy Pell said.
The school district has been buying homes and property near the high school for several years. Part of that property will be used for the new center.
Center Grove schools is constructing the building and will own it. Details about operational costs have not been sorted out yet, nor has the exact square footage of the center. The building will likely be two stories tall, Superintendent Richard Arkanoff said.
The new building will serve as the headquarters for Center Grove police. The other departments will maintain their current stations, but will send some officers and firefighters to work at the station around the clock, Bargersville Fire Chief Eric Funkhauser said.
The move is an important step in improving safety for Center Grove students, said Bill Long, Assistant superintendent of operations.
“The Operations Center will allow us to dramatically reduce the response time to any of our buildings on this campus, as well as providing a location for live monitoring of the cameras and security equipment throughout our school corporation,” Long said in a Center Grove news release.
The district will borrow money for the project, according to school board documents. The other departments will not contribute financially, but will provide equipment and vehicles, which Funkhauser hopes will eventually include an ambulance, a fire engine and a rescue truck.
Up to six firefighters and emergency medical service personnel will work on the second floor of the two-story building, while the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office and Center Grove Police Department will have operations on the first floor. The square footage of the station has not been finalized, but will likely mirror the size a typical fire station, Funkhauser said.
Unlike other departments at the center, the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office will not have staff there full-time, Sheriff Duane Burgess said.
Sheriff’s office deputies will be able to use offices there as a northern substation, separate from their headquarters in Franklin. There, officers can run breathalyzers, do paperwork and make phone calls, he said.
The rest of the building will likely include bunk rooms, bathrooms and locker rooms, separated by department, as well as a kitchen and offices, Pell said.
Since the departments often respond to emergencies together on mutual aid calls, having a central office was the next logical step, Pell said.
“The goal behind that is to put it in the right location for the community to save taxpayers some money. We can work some things out with the school, but also, in addition to having it at the right location, we can provide a presence at the school campus because of the high life-safety risk,” Pell said.
“We already work together — White River, Bargersville, even Greenwood have done mutual aid for a very long time,” he said.
The population growth in the Center Grove area is outpacing the growth of first responders, making mutual aid necessary in many cases, Pell said.
The long-standing partnership between Center Grove schools, the two fire departments and the sheriff’s office served as the spark for conversations around having an emergency operations center.
Planning began about a year ago, and the departments have had meetings at least once a month for the past four to five months, Funkhauser said.
“We started kicking around ideas last year, preparing budgets for how we can find efficiency in what we do … while driving more protection to the community,” Funkhauser said. “We offer up advice. We’re able to sit at a table together and see what the design of the emergency operation would look like.”
The building will also serve as a centralized location for live monitoring of Center Grove buildings, Center Grove officials said.
“It’s an amazing opportunity for us to make public safety stronger and to protect our community and schools even better than we do now,” Pell said.
Bids for the project will come in September, and Center Grove expects to finalize details for the building in July, Conrad said.
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Center Grove Emergency Operations Center
What: Likely a two-story building to house the White River Township and Bargersville fire departments, the Center Grove Police Department and the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office.
Where: Directly across the street from the high school’s west entrance.
Cost: Center Grove Schools is paying about $5 million to build the center.
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