BILLINGS – Those who respond to emergency calls in Yellowstone County have a new home.
County officials showed off their new dispatch center at 911 N. 24th St. Tuesday. The 911 center will move in next week.
Emergency officials say the new center will allow for a more timely, coordinated response across Billings and Yellowstone County.
“We have storage. That’s amazing. It’s so unusual to have adequate storage. We have radio crash kits, and telephone crash kits and all of the materials we need to run this operation. We have sleep rooms, which are available for come-on, stay-on types of situations. They will also serve as quiet room for staff members who have handled emotionally charged or traumatic calls. They have a quiet place where they can compose themselves before they return to duty,” said Anne Kindness, the communications center manager.
Some of those extras include locker rooms, dormitories, a kitchen and break room and a workout room.
The new facility nearly doubles the capacity of the current dispatch center at 2300 Ninth Ave. N.
Kindness has served as the manager for 28 years and said this facility is something that’s been in the works since the early 1990s.
“We have a commitment to taking care of the people that are really making a lot of sacrifices and are so dedicated to taking care of everybody else,” she said.
Reporting by Zoe Zandora for MTN News
