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Legislative Report 9 -- 2007 Report to the General Assembly

State of Vermont
Agency of Administration
Department of Buildings & General Services

 

Report to the 2007 General Assembly

Legislative Report 9

Title: Proposal for New Emergency Management and Operations Center

 

PROPOSAL FOR NEW EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT
AND OPERATIONS CENTER

In accordance with Act 121, Section 22 (a)(5) of the Acts of 2004, the Department of Buildings and General Services hereby submit the report to the senate and house committees on institutions concerning the proposal of relocating the EMOC.

Various site locations were reviewed utilizing a set of site criteria which had been previously established.  Contact with developers and realtors did not yield any viable options which met the both the site criteria and funding available.

The following represent the site criteria:

Primary critical elements for a facility which may house 20 – 30 full time employees continuously, with an intermittent load of up to 100 people on an as needed basis.  The building size required is approximately 30,000 square feet +/-.  

  • Water
  • Sewer
  • Power
  • 3 acre minimum parcel size
  • Appropriately zoned for State facility/institution
  • Accessibility
    1. Condition of road network to site
    2. Proximity to interstate interchange
    3. Access by user groups (AOT, Public Safety, Homeland Security, Public Service Dept., Dept. of Health, Dept. of Agriculture, VT Yankee, Human Resources and Dept of Buildings and General Services.
  • Location and Proximity to Montpelier
    1. Within 15 miles
    2. Within 25 miles
    3. Within 40 miles
  • Line of site for communication systems
  • High speed internet access
  • Cost to develop
    1. Property purchase costs
    2. Parking lot costs
    3. landscaping costs
    4. infrastructure extension costs
    5. Access road costs
    6. Building costs
    7. Ancillary costs
  • Vulnerability issues
    1. Proximity to railroad
    2. Proximity to interstate
    3. Visibility
    4. Proximity to backup EMOC location (Camp Johnson)
    5. Proximity to Floodplain
    6. Proximity to hostile targets (State House, hospitals, lab facilities etc.)

Research of alternative sites, given the parameters outlined above determined that developing a new stand alone facility would be cost prohibitive and that relocating the existing facility to the new Public Safety facility in Essex was the most appropriate and cost effective option.