Hancock County 911 center is getting a little remodeling done. A basement office is being finished for John Jokantis.
Daily Reporter photo
HANCOCK COUNTY — While county officials are in the midst of prepping the 2024 budget for salaries and work to be done in various departments, John Jokantas, the director of the Hancock County 911 Center, has asked for some things to be addressed at his facility.
Jokantas noted there are multiple potential small projects for the 911 center building, 640 S. Franklin St., which was originally constructed in 2008.
“Our last 911 system was installed in 2013, making it 10 years old this year,” Jokantas said. “Our hope is to replace it by December 1, 2023.”
In the meantime, he noted, they’ve already put some additional individual lighting above the dispatch consoles giving each operator an opportunity to pick how much or how little light they want above them.
Little things like that, Jokantas said, make a big difference for dispatchers who handle all emergency calls in the county.
The first project that has been approved by county officials for the 911 center is to build a new office in the basement for the director, Jokantas, who noted his deputy director, Greg Shamblin, will then move into his current office once the work is complete.
The second project expected to be done will be expanding the kitchen in the dispatch room.
“Greg’s office is in the way of that now,” Jokantas said. “As our team grows, we needed more space for the kitchen for a second fridge, an oven, dishwasher and other things.”
He also wants to get new windows installed as well as the front door assembly area changed and said if they have the money he would like to put a garage on the back of the building as soon as possible.
“We basically have no room to store anything,” he said. “A good example of that is we have extra ceiling and floor tiles from 2008 that we need to keep in case any get damaged, but they just sit in the basement.”
One other project expected to be completed soon is the introduction of sound deadening items in the room on ceiling clouds, panels on the walls, etc.
“As we get busier, the room gets louder and since the walls are concrete and glass, sound moves around the room pretty freely,” Jokantas said. “The same company is doing the ceiling tiles for my new office to deaden the noise coming from the kitchen, bathroom and a small area of the dispatch room that is above the new office.”
Costs are always a determining factor for many of the upgrades and changes, but so far Jokantas isn’t asking for anything too expensive. The initial basement remodel is estimated at about $13,500. Jokantas noted workers actually framed the one additional wall that was needed to enclose the area in early June.
As for the costs of the other projects, Jokantas doesn’t have the final estimates for those other things just yet, but wasn’t expecting anything to be big budget.
His main focus now is to get all the projects started and completed, but he said they will also not rush any of the projects should they linger.
Jokantas’s biggest concern is making sure he has enough dispatchers, which he said he does with a new one starting soon, hopefully by October, as well as keeping track of the growth in the area because as it goes, so does his need.
“As our county expands in population, we need to make sure that we keep up with that,” he said.
Jokantas did get the new employee, which will take the staff up to 24 in operations and three in administration for 2024.
“You can always use more people, but we believe we have a pretty good plan moving forward,” Jokantas said.
One project that has been put on hold for now is a workout room in the basement for 911 employees. Jokantas noted his employees are under higher stress than most and would benefit greatly during breaks and lunch sessions to have a place where they can blow off a little stress.
While county officials seemed to like the idea, even mentioning a good workout facility could be used by other county employees, the idea was put on hold for this budget cycle.
