News : Local leaders celebrate beginning of LEC construction

Supervisor Jason Sanders speaks to the crowd at LEC construction celebration.

Work on LEC continues in background as Steve Meyer discusses the EOC part of the new building.

Participants in the planning of the new LEC celebrate the beginning of construction Wednesday.

The fact that work began on the foundation of the new Benton County Law Enforcement Center before the ground-breaking ceremony is good news, said Supervisor Jason Sanders.

Speaking to several dozen people gathered on the courthouse's south lawn, Sanders recalled the flood of 2008 which destroyed the old LEC just two decades after it was built.

The new Emergency Management Center EOC (Emergency Operations Center) will be part of the new LEC, thanks to a $500,000 grant secured by Congressman Leonard Boswell.

Steve Meyer of the Benton County EMA Commission spoke about the efforts of Boswell's office and county leaders to get funding for a new EOC.

Boswell also spoke. He told of how during the flood of 2008, he was unable to reach Vinton because of the flood, so he called the EOC. He said the young lady who answered the phone gave him a complete description of the flood and the flood-fighting efforts going on outside.

But what Boswell remembers the most is the last thing that young woman said.

"She said 'We are all working together and we are going to be all right,'"said the Congressman.

Boswell said the appropriation of funding for the EOC is a good example of a positive use of the Congressional earmark, which he said has received a lot of negative press lately.

Also attending the event were representatives of FEMA, the Benton County Sheriff's Office, Vinton Police Department and Design Dynamics, the architectural firm that designed the new building.