Board approves applying for $5M CDBG grant to build Emergency Services complex after site debate

County emergency-management staff asked the Board to authorize submission of a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG-NR) application for $5 million to construct an Emergency Services complex, an Emergency Operations Center and warehouse space, focused on a low-to-moderate-income area west of Washington. DC Linton, an emergency-services representative, told the Board the complex would centralize emergency management, provide overnight housing for responders and create a county-controlled warehousing and distribution point for disaster-response materials and supplies. “This way our CRDP is onsite where our EOC is. It's a span of control thing so we can know what's going on instead of it being across the county,” he said.

Several commissioners supported the plan as an efficiency and resilience measure. Commissioner Randy Walker said the chosen location provides good access and is outside flood-prone areas. Commissioner Hood Richardson strongly criticized locating the full program in a single corner of a geographically large county and urged dispersing resources on both sides of the river to better serve remote populations. He also questioned whether constructing a large permanent facility would increase future government costs and suggested using existing school facilities and scattered storage. After extended discussion about county geography, response times and warehouse needs, the Board voted to approve submitting the $5 million CDBG application.

County staff said the application would proceed to the North Carolina Department of Commerce and that the public hearing process had been conducted earlier during the grant development. If funded, the project would require subsequent land-use, procurement and construction approvals and would be subject to federal grant conditions and CDBG rules.