EMS facility sees progress

CLINTON — Around two months ago the final beam for the Sampson County 911 and Emergency Services Center project was put into place, after a brief beam-signing and “topping out” ceremony.

Back into October county leaders, members of the community, EMS workers, and more joined with staff from Monteith Construction to celebrate the occasion and sign the beam that was officially affixed.

Then a good portion of the interior was just metal beams and a skeleton, yet now it’s starting to actually look like a building both inside and out.

“They do updates about every two weeks,” said Susan Holder, Assistant County Manager in an email.

The main EMS building is still the “major action area on site” their most recent report said.

Haymak Masonry will be working on the building’s exterior, with interior rough-ins continuing. Additionally in the next week Grey Interiors will complete hanging drywall.

Another section is what will house 911, and that is the furthest along in this project with three distinct sections.

This project has hit a few snags here and there the team said back in October, but they aren’t letting that hold them back. The pandemic has inflated the prices of lots of items, and put items on backorder as well.

“We have had a lot of hard work,” said Matt Brittan, Project Manager. “We are looking forward to finishing this.”

They have about 100 tons of structural steel and 50 tons of joists, he said. Equipment pad have been poured. They had to pour them in sections to make it so that they could adjust the grades for water runoff and such.

Brittan said that COVID has had a great impact on the process.

“[It’s affected] everything from material availability to cost escalation to labor shortages,” said Brittan. “It’s made things more challenging at times, absolutely.”

This has changed a few things from the routine, and he said that usually they know what the long lead items are, the items that they need more time to procure usually. Now that COVID has come into play, there are lots of items that might be on that list that aren’t usually on the list.

Paul Jeffries, who is in charge of scheduling and risk management, said that those supply issues are their biggest problem they have had.

“You hear about ships being stuck and cannot dock,” said Jeffries. “They have ceramic tile, all kinds of stuff that we just can’t get.”

“New materials are becoming a long lead, a scarcity,” Brittan had said. “It’s the surprises of the unknowns of the materials that are becoming no longer available that we take for granted that are usually in hand.”

When ground was broken at the site earlier this year, Monteith Construction representatives said they expected to complete the project in 14 months, with a ribbon-cutting targeted for summer of 2022.

About six months ago, a groundbreaking ceremony was held on the other side of the lot, next to the Sheriff’s Office on Fontana Street.

The facility will be 36,000 square feet and will house the county’s 911 telecommunications, emergency medical services, emergency management operations, fire marshal and addressing services, along with the emergency operations center.

The public safety facility was designed by ADW Architects of Charlotte, with engineering by the Stewart, Benesch and Optima companies. Consultation and planning services for 911 telecommunication design and migration has been provided by Mission Critical Partners.

In the 911 building Grey Interiors finished sanding the walls last week. This will allow Southern Touch Painting to begin priming. Smith’s Refrigeration is insulating their duct, and Hewitt Power is running their cable tray.

The third distinctive area is the apparatus bays, which are seeing some action as well.

Allen Grading has installed the grease trap and next will be laying the concrete masonry unit for the dumpster enclosure. Haymak Masonry also cleaned the brick veneer. Southern Touch Painting will be coming in to block fill the bays.

The next steps will be completing main building overhead rough-ins, drywall and shot-blast block installation. The 911 building will be primed, dumpster enclosure finished, and roofing.

Right now the expectation is that it will be completed in June of 2022

“We appreciate you all,” Sampson County Board Chairman Clark Wooten had said in October. “This is good that this is going here.”

The roughly $18 million project broke ground next to the Sampson County Detention Center on Fontana Street back in April with over half of the funding coming from grants. Those grants include a $5.5 million NC 911 Board Grant, $1 million from Golden LEAF and $3.5 million from a N.C. Office of State Budget and Management Disaster Recovery Grant.