Redmond City Council approved a 20-year lease agreement with the U.S. Forest Service last month that will mean the construction of a new $2.5 million building for the Central Oregon Interagency Dispatch Center at the Redmond Airport.

The dispatch center is a group of interagency partners, including the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and Oregon Department of Forestry, which protects 4.5 million acres of land from fire. The center is currently located at Prineville Airport, but according to Jean Nelson-Dean, public affairs officer with the Forest Service, the buildings that make up the center are small, so during fire season it can feel especially hectic.

“It gets very loud, very packed,” Nelson-Dean said.

At that building, she said, the center handles all logistics and does all of its dispatching of aviation crews and firefighting resources, including materials used during fires. Communication is the most important thing, and during fire season at that building, it can actually be hard to hear, she said.

“The desire is both to provide a better facility as far as how people can work within (the building) and be more efficient in operations,” Nelson-Dean said.

The new facility, contracted for construction to Morrison-Maierle, is expected to be 7,000 square feet. Other than helicopters, Nelson-Dean said, all other vehicles already operate out of the Redmond Airport, including tankers. Those helicopters will stay stationed at Prineville Airport, Nelson-Dean said, but she’s not sure what will happen to the building after the dispatch center moves.

The new building likely won’t be completed until next year.

“It’s still up in the air, but we’d hope to have them occupied in spring of 2017,” said Zachary Bass, the Redmond Airport’s project and grants coordinator.

Construction has not yet begun, as things are still in the design phase.

When the transfer does occur, Nelson-Dean said, existing employees’ jobs will remain the same.

“All of those employees will continue to work,” Nelson-Dean said, adding the change of location won’t necessarily create a commute where there wasn’t one before. “Reality is, many of those people already live in Redmond. We work across Central Oregon; our fire organizations are very combined.”

Because people’s roles will stay the same, she doesn’t expect the move to create new jobs in Redmond.

The facility will be constructed at Redmond Airport’s cost, and the 20-year lease will fund it, Bass explained.

“It’s basically building a rental house for someone that you know is going to be there a long time,” Bass said.

Bass added the airport is enthusiastic about the new agreement. The Forest Service is as well.

“We’re very excited that the City Council is making this possible,” Nelson-Dean said.

— Reporter: 541-383-0325, kfisicaro@wescompapers.com