HERMISTON – After 11 years of hot air, the Hermiston Safety Center is about to get some good air.

The recent budget passed by federal and state governments will allow the safety center to be overpressurized, a task some say could cost $275,000. The center is where staff coordinate the activities of police and fire districts from several cities.

Jim Stearns, chief of the Hermiston Fire and Emergency Services District, said construction should last for most of the year. Local officials have requested federal funds for sealing the safety center for about 11 years. Stearns said the money should be in place by the end of this week.

“Things are moving along. Overpressurization is a big step,” Stearns said last week. “It allows us to plan accordingly. If you’re going to lose your communications center, it’s going to be hard to plan for an emergency.”

The overpressurization will only secure the dispatch center. In an emergency involving chemical weapons from the nearby Umatilla Chemical Depot, Stearns, Police Chief Andy Anderson, City Manager Ed Brookshier and several dispatchers would man the center. Firefighters and police officers would have to move to safer locations.

Molly Van Cleave, the communications manager at the Hermiston Police Department, said the construction shouldn’t affect the public.

“It’s going to get a little messy in here, but it’ll pretty much be business as normal,” she said Tuesday.

Van Cleave said plans should be ready by March. The work may require moving a wall, she added.

Overpressurization, which is in place at most schools in Hermiston and Umatilla, would build up the pressure inside a building so air contaminated by chemical agents couldn’t get inside. The depot stores about 3,717 tons of chemical agents. An incineration complex to destroy the weapons is now about 78 percent complete and should begin operation by late 2001.

The Hermiston Safety Center is about six miles east of the depot’s incinerator site. Winds would most likely take a plume toward Umatilla, but all towns near the depot are preparing for the unlikely accident.

Stearns said local emergency officials are working on a large communications plan that would coordinate the many agencies if an chemical accident happened.

“That’s all our next big mission,” Stearns said. He is also awaiting the delivery of more emergency suits for first responders.