Whitfield Fire Headquarters Moves From 911 Center - At Bargain Price Of $30,000

Whitfield County Fire Department Headquarters has moved to 410 North Park Dr., in an industrial park located just off Chattanooga Avenue and the North Bypass.

The move provides badly needed additional space for the staff at the Whitfield 911 Center on Professional Boulevard, where the fire headquarters had been jointly located for several years.

Best of all, said Fire Chief Edward O’Brien, the relocation cost taxpayers just $30,000 – with the bulk of that expense coming from office furniture, computer cabling, and a new roof.

“The big thing we’re proud of is that a lot of the remodeling work was done by firefighters and the county Buildings & Grounds crews,” Chief O’Brien said. “That enabled us to get into the building at a price this county could not beat at all.”

Buildings & Grounds workers removed some cabinets, repaired several light fixtures and some of the plumbing, installed a water fountain, and built a wall to create another office, he said.

“They did that kind of stuff,” Chief O’Brien said, “and then our guys came in and did the finish work, things like painting the walls, doors, and trim; replacing a lot of damaged ceiling tiles, and laying the carpet tiles on the floor.”

The new office, which was already owned by the county, is about 1,900 square feet, nearly double the amount of space the firefighters had at the 911 Center.

“Building a facility this size, if you had to start from scratch, might have cost as much as $350,000,” Chief O’Brien said. “$350,000 versus the $30,000 that we spent – it was a good investment for the county.”

Besides the chief, housed at the new fire headquarters will be Operations Chief Randy Kittle, Training Chief Danny Roach, Training Captain Russell Wilson, and Administrative Assistant Kim Richards.

The building also includes two half baths, plenty of storage closets, and a combination conference room/kitchen, where the fire department was able to use existing cabinets, as well as another small meeting room just outside the offices of Chief Roach and Captain Wilson.

The lot itself is big enough, too, to allow future expansion of the building and more parking in the rear, if necessary.

“We’re proud of it,” Chief O’Brien said. “I don’t think at $30,000, you can’t get any kind of commercial space for that. Even if you rented something, it’d be two or three grand a month. This is already paid for out of this year’s fire department budget.”

Meanwhile, the move set off a domino effect at the 911 Center, allowing its workers to use that building more like it was originally intended to be used.

Emergency Services Director Claude Craig moved to the former fire chief’s office, which opened up an office for the 911 deputy director near the dispatch room. The locker room and lobby were being used as makeshift offices that were not intended to be permanent. Now, those workers have been moved into real long-term offices, the locker room for 911 has been restored, and the lobby office will be available for more expansion as positions are added to emergency services.

Emergency Services Deputy Director Jeff Ownby’s office in the Emergency Operations Center housed at the 911 Center was not intended to be a day-to-day office. It will be returned to its former status as the EOC communications office to be used during emergency activations, and Deputy Director Ownby has moved long-term to one of the prior assistant fire chief’s offices.

The 911 Center also now has an office for the 911 operations manager and quality assurance manager, both of which are newer positions added to the 911 branch of emergency services.

Now two county departments are reaping the benefits of the move.

“The building had sat empty for a while,” Chief O’Brien said of his new headquarters facility. “I know last year when I got here, it was empty because (county administrator) Mark (Gibson) and I came and looked at it once. When we first came in, it was like, aw, it doesn’t look that good when it was a mess and there were water leaks everywhere. But once we got serious and came back and started looking at it again, it was like, man, this will work.”