Cedar Park City Council members approved a $1.7 million contract Oct. 8 to move the city’s emergency dispatch center to a new space in the same building.
Some context
The Public Safety Communications Division handles 911 dispatching for the Cedar Park Police Department and Cedar Park Fire Department. The current communications center is “cramped” and has no room to add additional dispatchers, Nicholle Benedict, public safety emergency communications manager, told Community Impact in June.
The communications center will be moving from the second floor of the police department headquarters to the first floor. Dispatchers will take over the space previously occupied by the police department’s training division, which relocated to the city’s new Public Safety Training Facility in April, Benedict said.
“We’ll be able to have enough room to breathe,” she said.
The details
The city selected Trimbuilt Construction to carry out the project.
The new space will double the footprint of the communications center, Jessica Kintz, senior engineer for the city, said at the Oct. 8 City Council meeting.
According to Kintz, the scope of the project includes:
Converting the existing training conference room into a secure 24/7 dispatch center
Turning the old dispatch center into a flexible multipurpose space
Updating furniture and equipment
Upgrading mechanical, electrical, plumbing and technology systems
Emergency dispatch services will continue uninterrupted throughout the move, Kintz said.
Quote of note
“Big thank you to the folks that work in the existing room,” council member Michael Endres said. “We got to take a tour of it. It’s a small room with very powerful computers, and it was very hot in there. … They absolutely deserve this new space.”
What’s next
Paperwork filed by the city with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation in May noted that construction would start July 1 and be completed by February 2027. However, construction is now expected to take about nine months, Kintz said.
The project is funded with a 2025 certificate of obligation, Kintz said. The state filing lists the project's total anticipated cost at $3 million. City Council members also approved a roughly $175,000 contract with Johnson, Mirmiran & Thompson for construction inspection and observation services related to the dispatch center relocation and upgrades.
