Vol. 3 Iss. 2
February, 2024
ournals J THE
C IT Y
Centerville/Farmington
YOUR C O M M U N I T Y N E WS PA P E R
NEW STATE-OF-THE-ART EMERGENCY OPERATIONS CENTER DESIGNED FOR LARGE-SCALE DISASTERS By Becky Ginos | becky.g@davisjournal.com
DAVIS COUNTY—When disaster strikes, law enforcement, first responders and cities jump into action to give people the help they need. Until now, the Davis County Sheriff’s Office (DCSO) has been the central point coordinating efforts throughout the county but what they’ve been using isn’t adequate. Using a $15 million federal Coronavirus State Local Fiscal Recovery Funds grant, a new Davis County Emergency Operations Center (EOC) is in the works to provide that much needed help in an emergency. “It’s in the final design stages,” said Davis County Emergency Manager, Ember Herrick. “We expect to break ground in the spring with completion by the end of 2025.” It will be on the DCSO footprint, she said. “The EOC will sit on the same complex as the DCSO adjacent to the helipad and across the street from the Cinemark Theaters.” The 17,300 square foot EOC is designed to activate for large-scale disasters, she said. “During COVID we were using the DCSO auditorium but that is not what that was designed for. This will be a dedicated blue sky facility. Blue sky means it will be used for training and other normal everyday activities if nothing is going on.” Davis County is the third largest county in the state. Herrick said. “And we didn’t have one (emergency center). This will be one of the safest buildings in the county.” Some safety features of the new building will be an emergency generator to power the building when there
The new Emergency Operations Center (EOC) will sit on the same complex as the Davis County Sheriff’s Office. DEVELOPMENT RENDERING AERIAL EMERGENCY OPERATIONS CENTER The 17,300 square foot building is expected to be completed by the DESIGN end of 2025. Rendering courtesy of Davis 09/19/23 County Davis County Sheriff's Office 0'
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is a sustained power outage, she said. “Geopiers-supported foundation to withstand earthquake shaking, Starlink satellite internet, phone, and radio redundant communications capabilities, and the latest technology to foster interoperability with our 15 cities and other regional partners.” Herrick said the building also has natural lighting features. “It lets the daytime light in when we’re assisting with an event.” The American Radio Relay League
will work out of the facility as well, she said. “Ham operators that are active in disasters can communicate with our partners throughout the state and cities.” The EOC will have a media staging room, said Herrick. “It’s a joint information center where the Public Information Officer (PIO) can get messages out to the public. I’m excited because we’ll have the latest technology in mapping and communication. As people report the damage to us it will show up on the dashboard. It’s countywide so we can
see where the needs are and dispatch to the hardest hit areas.” It’s not just in Davis County, she said. “Places like North Weber who have a small city office and an emergency impacts them and they need a place to work out of, they can work here. That’s a resource for them in a disaster.” As the County Emergency Manager, Herrick takes the lead in a disaster. “We start local and grow. For example if Syracuse has a disaster we offer support if it’s something they can’t handle. They reach out to me with what their needs are.” If the disaster exceeds the county they go to the state, she said. “If it’s operational we work out of that building.” The EOC oversees individual cities, said Herrick. “There are 15 cities and we are here to help and support them unless it is countywide.” The grant is part of the Rescue Plan Act to help states recover from COVID and to assist in disaster recovery, she said. “This is an eligible project. The government allocated $350 billion with a portion to go out to all states. Davis County got a portion of that and they’re using $15 million of it to build the EOC.” It will be a great asset, said Herrick. “We are really grateful that the Davis County Commissioners and Sheriff Kelly Sparks have prioritized this project and believe it will be a valuable regional asset to help Davis County become the best prepared and most resilient county in Utah.” l
LOCAL AUTHOR’S BOOK HONORS NATIVE AMERICAN ACTORS AND THEIR IMPACT ON FILMS By Becky Ginos | becky.g@davisjournal.com
CENTERVILLE—Utah has been the backdrop to movie Westerns for years with well-known actors such as John Wayne but behind the scenes there have been hundreds of Native Americans whose faces were never recognized. In his book, “Native American Movie Actors,” Centerville author E. Dennis King honors those unsung Native Americans who helped create those box office hits. King was raised in Woods Cross and later moved to Centerville where he has lived for the last 50 years. He was in the first graduating class at Bountiful High School in 1957. “I was employed by Southwest Bell telephone company 40 years ago,” said King. “I was a regional manager that serviced two companies AT&T and GTE. My territory was Idaho, Arizona, Nevada and Utah.” King said when he was visiting Monument Valley in Southern Utah he
went into a large Navajo visitor center. “They had a video and all kinds of other tourist information. A Navajo man came up to me and offered to take me on a tour of Monument Valley.” It took all day long, he said. “This man was assigned by the Navajo tribe to help movie companies select movie sites. We talked about the movies that had been made and how they had to do all the dirty work.” What a shame they were not given credit, said King. “They got $5 a day. If they had a horse it was $10 a day.” King said he took pictures all along the way during the tour then put them in a drawer and forgot about them. “About 40 years later I started writing my personal history. I looked in the drawer and I had those. They were on a 35 mm camera and I had collected all of the information on how movies were made in Southern Utah and had them digitized.”
He interviewed more than 100 people and did profiles on many of the actors, said King. “It took three years and I was about to publish when the COVID crisis hit. I printed 100 copies on my own and either sold them or gave them away.” It’s been nearly five years now and King’s book was picked up by Dorrance Publishing Co., Inc of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. “The process has been phenomenal,” he said. “I had a hard time finding a stopping place. There are literally hundreds of stories in it. I included movies and locations in Utah where they were made, integrating some communities that most people were not aware of.” The book tells about Harry Goulding, a photographer who had a trading post in Sanpete County in 1940. “He was struggling to get by,” said King. Continued page 2
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