CONWAY, SC (WBTW)- Horry County leaders want a new emergency operations center. It will cost 26 million dollars, but the county doesn’t have any funding allocated to the project but they say they’re going to continue to move forward.
The current emergency operations center is in the M.L. Brown building, but Horry County leaders said it’s outdated, needs new technology, and this area floods every time there’s significant rain.
They’re looking for extra funds because they want to start building the new facility as soon as fiscal year 2020
“We really want to get this project moving along because its direly needed in Horry County,” said council member Al Allen.
Horry County wants to put the new EOC on land it owns across from J. Reuben Long Detention Center.
County council member Al Allen said the building needs to be in a more elevated and centrally located spot, and it needs living quarters.
“Any time you have a significant weather event be it a hurricane, tropical storm, ice storm, flood then there has to be a crew that has to stay there 24/7,” said Allen.
The price tag is 26 million dollars.
“Right now from my understanding there’s probably going to be some significant grant funding coming down from the feds pertaining to public safety,” said Allen.
It’s not there yet, and the county needs 2 million dollars for pre construction costs.
“It’s something that we have to make the effort to really push ahead on that we can stay ahead of this,” said Allen.
The county is looking at using about 2.5 million dollars of leftover funds from the county’s new 911 radio system, five million from it’s unassigned fund, and nearly three million in FEMA funds from Hurricane Matthew on the project.
County leaders said the project needs to be formally included into the county’s capital improvement program, and needs architectural drawings.
The public safety committee will discuss the possibility of using existing county funds for the new EOC at their meeting next Wednesday.