ROCKLAND — Knox County opened the doors to its Public Safety Building at 301 Park Street in Rockland Tuesday, March 5, from 5 to 7 p.m., presenting the recently renovated building that now houses the Knox County Sheriffs office, Emergency Management Center and the county’s new Dispatch Center.

Formally the Village Soup offices, the needed renovations were paid for with the bond approved by Knox County voters in November 2011. The county purchased the building from VillageSoup in January 2012. An agreement had been made with the county to continue occupying the premises until late spring of 2012 to start renovations.

On a side note: Though hardly anything except maps adorned the walls. In the sheriff’s part of the building after you pass through the receptionist’s foyer, a plaque hangs on the wall dedicated to the memory of Deputy Frank Ross, of Owls Head, and Deputy Frank Buzynski, of Thomaston, who died in a car accident while in pursuit of a drunk driver on Sept. 4, 1959.

The two deputies have been the only Knox County deputies who have died in the line of duty.

It was fitting and spoke highly of the dedication and gratitude displayed by the sheriff's department that it was the first thing placed on the wall.

Knox County Sheriff Donna Dennison said the sheriff’s part of the building has her office in it, detective offices and patrol. In addition there is a police lab, and evidence room, training and classrooms.

Dennison said she still keeps an office at the jail, which is just up the street from their present building.

“The jail is still my responsibility,” she said. "The patrol officers and the corrections personnel will still share the exercise and training facilities. I want to keep them together.”

Dennison is in her second term as sheriff and said things are falling into place.

“We’re really thankful, we really needed the space,” she said. “And as you can see, they’ve done a wonderful job. I’m really pleased with all the employees, they are all team players. I look forward to working with them and I thank the public for its support.”

The building did not lend itself well to photos inside, with the exception of dispatch. Hallways with multiple doors opening to offices were the standard. The building was comfortable and well laid out.

The building was alive with visitors and public service employees were friendly and ready to answer questions. Everyone was proud of their new home. My impression was that it will meet the needs of the departments now and for some time to come.

“You can always use more room,” commented Dennison, “but times are pretty hard right now and we’re happy and thankful this got approved.”

Detective Reginald Walker has been with the Knox County Sheriff’ Department since 1986. He is trained and qualified to give polygraphs. By law, a person cannot be compelled to take a polygraph examination.

“The exception,” said Walker, “is a convicted sex offender. The can be ordered to take a polygraph examination as part of their sentence.”

Walker said business is slow right now in the polygraph business.

“It’s slow right now. It gets busier from spring to fall.”

Walker agreed that the downturn is a good reflection on a lower crime rate.

“It is a reflection of the crime rate. And attests to the men who get confessions.”

Knox County has four sheriff’s detectives, 11 patrolmen, two sergeants and a Lieutenant who serves a patrol administrator.

Ray Sisk serves as director of the Emergency Management section of the building.

“We love it here,” said Sisk. “We came here out of a Cold War era section of the courthouse basement. It just didn’t meet our needs for today."

Sisk has been on the job since 2007. I asked him how long his agency had been in the courthouse.

“Fifty, maybe 60 years,” he said. “Since the 1950s, for sure. And we’re talking tin helmets and hand-cranked sirens here. As long as there’s been a civil defense preparedness program, it’s been in the basement of the courthouse. My initial impression is it’s nice to be above ground and see the sun.”

Sisk said a big part of his agency’s responsibility was public education.

“We school people on incidence command management, disaster-management oversight, the office of public information and public health. We also have a handful of volunteer groups we help train and advise.”

Sisk said he felt his department was pretty well set to handle and manage disasters that might occur in Knox County.

“We have a good group of agencies,” he said. “That work well together. We have very capable volunteers and a diverse group of private sector partners. Our staff is well-trained and all I can say is we feel capable.”

Stephanie Gibbs, of Warren, serves as supervisor for the new dispatch center. She has been with the department for 15 years. The new center has six stations, four of which are fully functional.

“We were in the jail with the sheriff’s office,” she said. “Our old communications center was half this size. It’s not unusual to get 15 to 20 calls for one accident, especially with the number of cell phones out there.”

Knox County recently advertised for a supervisor’s position for the communications department. And though acceptance of those applications has been closed, Gibbs said soon they will be looking for dispatchers.

“You need to have a high school diploma and be over 18,” she said. “It’s mostly on-the-job training. The state requires four certifications to be a dispatcher. We provide all the certificates and licenses, as well as all the training to get those..”

The training period can last 12 to 16 weeks.

“It takes one to two years of being on the job before someone says I’m comfortable doing this.”

Linwood Lothrop is the man that makes it all work with the computers, the myriad of phone lines and radio equipment. The first thing you notice when you step into his area is the drop in temperature.

“It’s a big room,” he said, “and it serves two purposes. First it provides for future expansion and second, the electronic equipment generates a lot of heat. The closer the equipment is to each other, the harder it is to keep the equipment cool.”

Lothrop said they keep the temperature between 63 and 65 degrees all the time. Asked to comment on a piece of equipment in the room he chose the system that handles the 911 calls.

“The computer equipment you see behind me is where the 911 calls are received. When a call comes in it’s routed to New York where it is identified with an address and name of the origin of the call. Then it’s routed back to our dispatch center for an operator to answer. They have a name, an address and town or city when they answer the call. And it all happens within a half a ring. The information is there before the phone rings one time. It’s pretty amazing.”

Though I couldn’t get into the room to take photographs, I was impressed with the panel of wires that looked a lot like a multi-colored bowl of long spaghetti.

“It all starts and comes back here,” said Lintrop with a smile. “It’s all color coded as per department and bundled. If someone reports a problem I can identify the section with the color code and track down the problem. It saves a lot of time and I don’t have to go through a bunch of wiring to locate and fix a glitch.”

All in all the new building was impressive. People looked comfortable and excited to be in a new space. The Knox County Commissioners planned well. The building should meet the needs of Knox County for years to come.