Effingham County’s 911 center is expected to be ready to handle calls in early to mid June, county project manager Adam Kobek said.

County commissioners accepted final completion of the Multi-Agency Call Center, which will handle the county’s 911 calls. Commissioners signed off on the total of three change orders for the 9,500 square foot building on Courthouse Road. The change orders from Brunson Construction represented a 1.8 percent increase in the cost, and Kobek said the national average for overruns is 3 percent.

The final price tag for the 911 center was $1,894,455, and the original estimate was $2.1 million.

“We were very pleased to work with Brunson,” Kobek said. “We feel they did a good job.”

Planning for the building was started in 2005 and one of the changes involved the Motorola communication system that wasn’t in production when the initial plans were drawn up, according to Kobek.

Training for 911 dispatchers on their new equipment and in their new building is expected to start in early May. The CADSTAR system is expected to be put in during early June, and the 911 center will become operational soon after.

Commissioners also OK’d a lease agreement with the state Department of Natural Resources for improvements to the Tuckasee King landing.

The upgrades to the boat landing at Tuckasee King are part of the state’s Go Fish Georgia program and to begin the work, the state needed a 25-year lease on the property. Commissioners wanted to know why the state sought the lease.

“We can’t spend money without owning it,” Kobek said of the property. “We lease the entire project, and they pay us for the improvements. We own the property. It’s to ensure the public gets its use out of it.”

The state, Kobek added, has to have the lease in order to be in compliance with state law before it can appropriate money for the work.

The improvements will include a service pavilion with restrooms, a drainfield, a boardwalk connecting the upper and lower piers and two additional fishing piers. Plans also call for a well to be installed.

Currently, there are 60 parking spaces at Tuckasee King.