In Templeton on Monday, San Luis Obispo County's first responders — CAL FIRE SLO and the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office — broke ground on a 17,000-square-foot joint dispatch facility that will address the need for improved communication between emergency response agencies.
This $39 million project will sit adjacent to the existing SLO County Sheriff’s Office just off Main St. and Highway 101.
CAL FIRE SLO Chief John Owens explained that the center’s purpose is two-fold.
“This is going to build a new facility that will benefit our people for our operations but ultimately it’s for the citizens of this county,” Chief Owens said.
Since neither of the existing agencies has room to expand, this new facility gives emergency workers additional space to perform the daily demands of the job.
SLO County Sheriff's Office Chief Deputy Nate Paul said that improved communication between agencies enhances their service to the community.
“Communication will improve across the board. We will be able to go face-to-face with our counterparts from CAL FIRE/County Fire. We’ll be able to better serve the communication needs of our citizens by having a modern facility and to serve the needs of our employees by giving them a proper facility that’s not antiquated and too small to work in, which will also enhance their ability to, in turn, serve the community,” Paul said.
Both agencies also agreed that the North Regional Dispatch Center will create cohesion between SLO County’s EMS providers.
“This project came about because we identified the fact that we could serve the citizens better and more efficiently by locating our dispatch operations in the same building instead of maintaining different building nearby but not connected,” Paul said.
The North County Dispatch Center should be completed by November 2024.
