Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Emergency center to move away from debate site

From colleague Kate Howard:

The presidential debate at Belmont will be sending a big neighbor across town while Secret Service agents swarm: the Emergency Communications Center and Mayor's Office of Emergency Management.

The city's 911 dispatch center and emergency response organization, now situated alongside the university's campus, will move for a week to their backup center in Antioch for two reasons, says ECC director Duane Phillips: to make it easier on employees trying to get in and out of work, and so their infrastructure and 911 lines are far enough from campus to manage an emergency in case one occurs.

"We know our backup system works perfectly, because once a month we run it for a full 24 hours," Phillips said. "Everything we have here, we have there."

So from the Friday before (Oct. 3) to the Thursday after (Oct. 9) the candidates' visit, the center should be operating outside the scrunity of the heavy security and far from a disaster, should one occur.

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