ALBION, NY (WKBW) — On Friday, Orleans County received 2 million dollars in FEMA funding to construct a new building for the Emergency Operations Management Center.
Currently the EOM center resides in a bunker built in the 1960's that has a leaky roof and cramped spaces for workers.
Justin Niederhofer, the director of the Orleans County Emergency Management team says that the building needs improvements and has for decades.
"So this is a significant step towards getting us to a facility that will allow us to operate well into the future. It will meet our current needs and offer the technology. And space that we need to operate well into future, " said Niederhofer.
The county serves more than 40,000 residents and the funding will help make the team Niederhofer manages able to do their jobs better.
First responders working for other departments in the county say their equipment is also in desperate need of an upgrade.
"It will take a lot more, not only for the eoc but for buildings like this. It was built in 1961," said Gerry Bentley, a firefighter in Barre and EMT for Orleans County.
7 News spoke with Bentley in the fire hall; where they may have four sizable engines, but the fire company had to build them to fit under the 10-foot doors.
"We had to build trucks to fit these 10-foot doors. They're it's not what we wanted but what we had to do," said Bentley.
For several years -- Bentley and his department have been asking for funding to build a new fire hall, but it's always been struck down.
This comes while the department is also struggling with recruitment.
"I call myself the older generation. But we have to keep coming around. Because if we don't, we have nobody," said Bentley.
But for Bentley, the millions of dollars going towards emergency services in the county is seen as a big step forward.
"This is an effort we've been pushing for a long time to get a new EOC. Finally, we're getting closer to breaking ground, I hope." said Bentley.
The emergency management office hopes to begin the transformation of the bunker into the new building soon. But no timeline has been released yet.
