The end is in sight for phase one of the Buffalo County Justice Center. Officials hope to move inmates in as early as January. Friday, NTV took a tour of the new building including one room that could save lives. 
   
     When completed, the basement will house the City of Kearney and Buffalo County Emergency Operations Center. It will be a meeting space for officials and media to gather in an emergency. This will help get vital information to the public as quickly as possible. 

     Whether it's a tornado, an ice storm or even an attack, keeping people safe takes teamwork. "The best way you can respond to a community and get an area of a community back to some level of normalcy is by good communication between government," said Buffalo County Sheriff Neil Miller.
 
     That communication requires first responders, elected officials, organizations that lend aid, and others to be in the same space. Right now that space is a multi purpose room on the top floor of the Law Enforcement Center. "The ice storm, the tornadoes, some hazardous materials incidents have really shown us in the past that that room is not necessarily conducive to the EOC we need it to be," said Buffalo County Emergency Manager Darrin Lewis.
  
     As construction continues outside the Buffalo County Justice Center, inside, officials discuss plans for their new Emergency Operations Center. "We will have an operations room, we will have a planning room, we will have a logistics room," listed Lewis.
  
     "This gives us the ability to bring everyone together in a single place, coordinate those efforts so that we provide the best service to the public we can," explained Miller.

     Right next door is a room for the media. This will help get that message to those that need it the most. "If you can coordinate an emergency to make the public a lot safer that's our main
purpose. How do we recover? How do we respond?" Lewis asked.

     Highlights of the center include a video wall, computers, back-up power sources, and the back-up 9-1-1 center. About half of the cost will be covered by an Emergency Management Program Grant with the rest being funded by city and county dollars.

Reporter's Notes by Laurie Dutcher:

The center should be open by February.

When the center isn't being used for emergencies it will be used for training.