Building, vacant for the past several years, would become central outpost for fire, police response.
Los Angeles Times
UPLAND, Calif. ? A former Upland City Hall and police station that has been vacant for several years is about to get a new lease on life.
The city is considering turning the vacant Walker-Eisen Building at the northwest corner of 2nd Avenue and D Street near City Hall into a dispatch center for the Police and Fire departments and emergency operations center where the city departments would coordinate responses during a catastrophe such as an earthquake.
The city is conducting a seismic study that will help determine the cost to retrofit the building, which was constructed in 1939. It had served as a City Hall and was used as a police station until the department moved into a new headquarters in 1987. Since then, the building has been used by Main Street Upland, the Boys and Girls Club and a dance studio, said Fabian Villenas, a senior management analyst for the city.
The U.S. Department of Justice has already earmarked $347,725 in grant funds that would be used to purchase communication equipment for the dispatch center.
The Police and Fire departments now operate their own dispatch centers.
Fire Chief John Scanlon said it would be appropriate to bring all the dispatch operations together and use the building as an emergency operations center, in which departments would coordinate with one another during a disaster. With the exception of police and public works, most departments, including fire, are centered around City Hall .
“I think it is an exciting option,” Councilman Tom Thomas said. “I think there are some efficiencies gained by putting it all in one location, and it takes a government building [that was] out of service for a number of years and brings it back to a useful life.”