A state-of-the-art Emergency Services Center opens Wednesday in Fayetteville.
A ribbon cutting will be held at 2 p.m. at 500 Executive Place with a public tour to follow.
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Gene Booth, Cumberland County's emergency services director, said the new center will house the 911 call center and the fire marshal's office among other essential operations.
Booth said the city and county has outgrown their old space, which has managed emergency operations since the 1970s. The need became even more apparent during recent major hurricanes, Booth said.
"Hurricane Matthew and Hurricane Florence both just really proved to us that our space for emergency operation center needs to be a lot more elaborate and robust. We had people sleeping in the hallways during Matthew and Florence, so we really need to be able to increase our technology and increase our space."
The new center features next-generation 911 equipment, including a phone system with text-to-911 capability, according to a press release. If the facility needs to be evacuated, the system will allow for rapid call routing to other 911 centers.
There is also a video wall capable of more than 48 different video configurations. Eight meeting spaces with monitors can link to other monitors in the building.
"We learned that space is very much needed within our emergency operations center," Booth said. "When you're in when you have 40 or 50 people trying to operate in the EOC atmosphere in a tight space, it is difficult to think and hear each other. Here we have breakout rooms where planning meetings can be held -- [we can] focus on the needs of the citizens and the needs of the first responders and bring all that back together to create a plan of action."
Booth said the center needs to hire about five people, explaining staffing is at around 80% or 90%.