Sandoval County outlines timeline to open new 911 dispatch center, schedules staff hiring and GIS cleanup

Sandoval County officials and outside consultants gave a detailed update on the county’s new Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) during the county commission meeting, outlining a phased construction and technology rollout with a projected July 2025 go‑live.

Michael McGrady, principal of MCM Consulting Group, told the commission the PSAP facility is under construction and that the team expects to have a "clean room" finished in February 2025 so 911 and sensitive equipment can be installed. McGrady said vendor contracts for call‑handling equipment, logging recorders and radio consoles are in place or ordered and implementation work will begin in February with a kickoff meeting set for Feb. 10, 2025.

The project includes computer‑aided dispatch (CAD), records management (RMS), call handling, radio consoles and a logging recorder. McGrady said the team plans to migrate historical incident data from the county’s current system into the new county‑hosted server so prior alerts, medical annotations and agency data remain available after cutover.

Staffing and training were highlighted as priorities. McGrady said advertisements for supervisors and telecommunicators are posted and close Feb. 5, 2025; the county has already hired an assistant director and operations manager. He described a training sequence that includes classroom curriculum, APPCO and emergency medical dispatch courses, on‑the‑job training, ride‑alongs and stress‑management components. Later in the meeting, Chief Masterson said he is "comfortable" the hires will be available in time for training and the July target.

County and consultant remarks emphasized a large, parallel GIS and addressing cleanup to make sure every livable structure has a routable address and correct map aliases. McGrady said the first six months of the effort will target imminent fixes that would delay emergency responses, and that the county will continue longer‑term corrections and alias creation (local names, forestry roads, common places) so dispatchers consistently route responders. The corrected data will be uploaded to the state EDAC system and can later be used for planning, fire hydrant inventories, utilities and broadband mapping.

Consultants also connected the PSAP work to the county’s broadband grant planning. McGrady and project partners described an effort to identify unserved areas and design a middle‑mile network mixing fiber and wireless where appropriate; they said the county has identified 1,306 unserved areas for the broadband equity/BEAD‑type planning effort and is iterating designs to determine where fiber versus wireless is feasible.

Commissioners pressed on timing and budget. Commissioner Jones asked if the project remains on budget and whether the county must buy additional consoles; McGrady replied the JPA addendum approved by the commission and state DFA allows money exchange between partners, and that Rio Rancho will retain consoles as needed so no new consoles must be ordered immediately. Jones also asked about NextGen 911 capabilities such as two‑way video (FaceTime) for call handlers; McGrady said that is part of NextGen and state‑level development is still evolving, so local adoption and requirements remain to be determined.

The county intends to "burn in" the system (operate it for training and testing) for roughly a month before the switch, McGrady said, and that historically well‑prepared PSAP cutovers take only minutes on the actual switchover day because planning and testing remove most issues.

The commission received assurances from operations staff that quality assurance processes will be set up to monitor call‑handling consistency and identify needed tweaks in policy, training and procedures after launch. Commissioners and staff also emphasized outreach and ride‑alongs to the county’s pueblos, towns and villages to capture cultural and geographic details and annotate them into CAD/GIS so dispatchers will see alerts and contacting instructions when appropriate.