Hancock County officials will open a new, $5.5 million emergency operations center just outside Ellsworth in November.
The new operations center off Washington Junction Road will be a headquarters for Hancock County’s Emergency Management Agency, which oversees responses to crisis situations, from forecasted heat waves to unexpected mass casualties. The agency has historically been located in the basement of the county’s antiquated courthouse, surrounded by granite bedrock that limited technology access.
The state court system is being relocated from the county courthouse to a modern judicial center off the High Street corridor in Ellsworth.
The county’s regional communications center and 911 operators will not move to the complex, though there will be a backup dispatch center in the event of an emergency at the courthouse, where the operators are now stationed with the sheriff’s department. Once courthouse operations are moved to the $55 million judicial center, the county’s 911 operators — separate from the emergency management agency — likely will move upstairs from the basement to what is now the District Court room, according to Bob Conary, RCC director.
The new complex, which will serve as the nerve center for emergency planning and house storage and office space, comes as some of the county’s aging, underfunded infrastructure has strained under a steadily growing population. With Acadia National Park drawing more than 4 million visits last year, pressure on the county’s emergency services has only intensified.
“It’s a county-wide asset for all of the communities in Hancock County,” agency director Andrew Sankey previously told the Bangor Daily News. “The focal point for us is for public safety agencies to be able to carry out their missions, which are planning for, responding to and recovering from disasters.”
Between the property’s purchase and improvements, the county spent roughly $5.5 million on the new center, much of which came from federal funding.
Construction was partly funded through $1.5 million in congressionally directed spending, formerly known as earmarks, which Sankey applied for in 2023. The grant required $500,000 in a county match, financed by windpower developers who have turbine projects in the county.
The county purchased the property using $1.85 million in federal funds from the American Rescue Plan Act, received as part of the federal government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. An additional $1.74 million in ARPA funds was spent on the property’s closing costs and building improvements, according to Monica Cease, county treasurer.
Hancock County was granted a total of $10.6 million in ARPA funds that was directed towards broadband expansion projects, COVID-19-related hazard pay for first responders and community organization grants, county officials previously said.
Among the most important reasons for the investment is the need to centralize storage of the agency’s capital equipment, which was previously scattered in various off-site, outdoor locations without proper maintenance, Sankey said. For a team preparing for emergency situations, it’s critical the agency can keep equipment like generators and radios ready for use at a moment’s notice.
The property, which formerly operated as a mill under Robbins Lumber, sits between Wyman’s blueberry plant and the Downeast Scenic Railroad yard off Washington Junction Road. The complex is located in the town of Hancock just east of Ellsworth’s city boundary.
In April, the agency’s three member team moved their office space to an existing log cabin-style office building adjacent to the 5,000-square-foot operations center which, absent an emergency, will be used for trainings and meetings.
The county currently does not have any expansive spaces to conduct large-scale training, according to Sankey. The instruction room, large enough for 195 people and equipped with a small kitchen, will be used by the nearby Hancock County Fire Academy during the winter and the Ellsworth Police Department, which has a pistol range by the academy, for indoor tactic training and equipment cleaning. The public will be able to rent the space for a fee, but there may be a fee waiver for nonprofit organizations, Jesse Samdahl, deputy director of EMA, told the BDN Thursday.
The complex also has two additional buildings being used for storage space and room for backup IT servers.
The Maine State Police offices in Hancock County, now located at 180 Bangor Road in Ellsworth, may relocate to a building at the far end of the property, according to the county commissioners’ Aug. 4 meeting minutes. The move would allow state troopers to bypass much of Ellsworth’s summer traffic when responding to Mount Desert Island and surrounding areas, Samdahl said. The state police would pay the county rent if they moved to the property.