Dane County Cuts Ribbon on New Emergency Operations Center, Emergency Management Office Building

January 17, 2024
Ariana Vruwink, 608-267-8823
County Executive, Emergency Management

Today, Dane County Executive Joe Parisi joined the Department of Emergency Management and members of the community’s police, fire, and EMS associations to cut the ribbon on Dane County’s new Emergency Operations Center and Emergency Management Office Building, located at 2982 Kapec Road in Fitchburg. Dane County purchased the former Fitchburg Fire Station in 2020 for a cost of $1.8 million and spent $5.6 million on remodeling work to convert the former firehouse into an Emergency Operations Center. The new facility is designed to allow staff to immediately focus on emergency response.

“As we’ve seen with past flooding events, severe winter weather systems, and other natural events, it’s important to have the space necessary to coordinate regional responses,” said County Executive Parisi. “This new facility enables all of our Dane County Emergency Management functions and resources to be located under one roof to create a more efficient support network for local first response agencies.”

The new Dane County Emergency Operations Center is a dedicated facility that is always ready for operations, can seat over 40 people with over 30 telephone connections, has increased Wi-Fi and cellular capacity, permanent video conferencing capabilities, multiple large screen monitors, radio communications, and an audio system.

Dane County’s Department of Emergency Management and Emergency Operations Center had been located on the second floor of the Public Safety Building since the building opened in 1994 in downtown Madison. To open the previous Emergency Operations Center, a partition between two rooms had to be opened. Tables, chairs, and radios needed to be placed. Video communications equipment was brought into the room.

“The new Emergency Operations Center allows our staff to rapidly engage with responders and provide assistance faster when minutes count,” said Dane County Emergency Management Director Charles Tubbs. “Thank you to Dane County Executive Joe Parisi, the Dane County Board of Supervisors, and the citizens of Dane County for this beautiful professional facility.”

Since 1994, Dane County’s Emergency Management Department has added response equipment, including Command Vehicle 1 (CV-1), several trailers to aid in mass casualty response, a UTV to support off-road emergency responders, and high-clearance vehicles to aid the delivery of equipment to support emergency responders. This equipment had been stored at multiple locations across Dane County. The move to the new facility allows all of the department’s equipment and staff to be consolidated into one location.