Books moved at future dispatch center

BANGOR – The stacks of books that once towered in the third-floor room of the Penobscot County Courthouse have gone, but there is still work to be done to transform the empty space of the law library into a regional emergency dispatch center.

County officials credited Penobscot County Jail inmates and county staff with completing the arduous two-day job last week of boxing an estimated 18,000 books from the third-floor room at the courthouse. They boxed the books and loaded them onto a tractor-trailer to be taken to Husson College.

Jim Ryan, director of the Penobscot Regional Communications Center, which is moving into the former library space, estimated Wednesday that 740 boxes of books were loaded on Aug. 16-17 and taken away.

In the days before the big move, Ryan and two staff members at the PRCC readied the books and relocated some smaller stacks into an office that will retain some of the law library’s operations, including computer access to materials.

The new home for the communications center, which dispatches for police, fire departments and ambulances for much of Penobscot County, will begin to take shape in mid-September when raised flooring will be installed beginning Sept. 13.

New dispatch consoles will be delivered at night on Sept. 19 and installed during the next two days, Ryan said. The intent is to minimize intrusion to court and county operations in the building, he said.

The project is expected to cost about $224,000 and includes other renovations to the courthouse, such as adding walls to provide additional separation of stairwells – a fire safety precaution – and more fire-safe doors. The consoles will cost another $107,000.

Moving the dispatch center from the basement of the 3rd District Court to the courthouse is expected to be completed by the end of this year or early next year and will require a temporary transfer of operations.

Ryan said that for a brief time, about an hour, calls into dispatch will be routed to the Maine State Police barracks in Orono, as is the case from time to time when there is a significant power outage or problem with the lines.

PRCC dispatchers will use backup systems in a mobile communications center to page ambulance and fire crews.

Ryan said the public shouldn’t notice a difference.

“There won’t be a time when the public calling 911 won’t get someone,” he said.