By Derek Spellman
dspellman@joplinglobe.com
NEOSHO, Mo. — Newton County will revise the design for a planned tornado shelter in Stella and will again apply for grant money for work on the county’s emergency operations center.
The County Commission on Monday discussed the next step for the 1,500-square-foot shelter, which will double as a Stella community center. County officials also formally rejected the nine bids previously submitted for construction of the building.
Those bids, ranging from $273,715 to about $321,470, exceeded the project’s $225,000 budget. The bulk of the funding is to come from a Federal Emergency Management Agency grant, with the balance coming from a donation by Stella residents Bob and Mona Hart.
The county, along with the Harry S. Truman Coordinating Council, submitted the grant application on the town’s behalf.
“We are going to rebid it as soon as we are ready,” Presiding Commissioner Jerry Carter said Monday.
The design for the building will be reworked, possibly to allow contractors more flexibility in terms of the building materials they can use.
In other business, the commissioners said the county had been turned down for a $300,000 federal grant that was sought to retrofit the former National Guard armory, which houses the county’s emergency operations center.
Gary Roark, the county’s emergency management director, said the funding would have been used to retrofit the armory partly so that it could accommodate a radio tower for antennas and provide the center with a generator for backup electrical power.
The grant program was available through the Department of Homeland Security, which told the county in the rejection notice that the program had an “overwhelming response” this year.
This year’s grant program had a total of $34 million available nationwide for building or renovating emergency operations centers.
This year’s program drew 613 applications totaling more than $264 million in funding requests, according FEMA, a division of the Department of Homeland Security.
Carter said the county would again apply for grant money, either through the same federal program if it is offered next year or through another grant program.
Dispatching center
Newton County officials are also eyeing the armory as the new home for the central dispatching center. The center is in the county courthouse, and officials say a new location is needed to provide additional space for dispatchers and equipment. A larger roof also is needed so radio antennas can be spread over a wider space to reduce feedback.
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