Communications Hub

The Alachua County Communications Center is really state of the art. It's in East Gainesville, located on SE 27th street in the same complex as the Alachua County Sheriffs Office. The communications center can withstand 150 mile-per-hour winds. The building is new; it was completed in January 2001. This is a really high-tech building. It has a massive generator that will automatically kick-in if the building loses power. The roof of the building is reinforced with a steel deck with three inch concrete fill. The buildings windows and doors are reinforced with hurricane-strength shutters. The building is also highly secured; it has electronic locks on every exterior door and has security cameras. This building is a mecca of emergency safety in North Central Florida. As much as I know, no other country in the area is better prepared than Alachua County. I know that a new emergency operations center is in the planning stages in Marion County. Marion County still runs its communications center out of the Marion County Sheriffs Office. It's crazy; the population is pretty much the same in both counties, but Alachua County is much more up-to-date in some areas.