Warren County has been awarded two grants totaling $227,745 to construct and outfit the emergency management agency (EMA) portion of the planned administration building. The county will receive $217,245 from the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) and $10,500 from a Citizen Corps grant, according to Mike Daniels, the county's emergency management director. Both grants are administered by SEMA. The larger grant is to build out the EMA center that will be located in the basement level of the proposed administration building, expected to be constructed later this year and opened next year. The other grant will be used to purchase equipment, such as projectors and televisions, for the training center. Daniels said the county's share is part of $6,264,436 distributed throughout the state. "I'm very excited about receiving this," Daniels said. "It's probably a larger portion than others." The new county building, to be constructed on approximately 3 acres purchased last year on South Highway 47 and Mockingbird Lane, will house all non-court related offices. The county has budgeted $6 million to construct a 36,071-square-foot, two-story facility. The EMA center will include a roughly 58-by-30-foot training room and a separate radio communication room. Daniels also will have an office nearby. "We will pretty much go from nothing to one of the nicest emergency operations in this area," said Daniels, who currently has a 12-by-12-foot office in the courthouse. The grant funding will allow the county commission to forgo a plan to bid the EMA portion as an alternate. Under that scenario, finishing out the shelled space was going to be contingent on how low the bid prices came in. "Now it will be an area that will be finished," Presiding Commissioner Arden Engelage stated. The new county building was initially expected to be finished by the fall, but due to a delay in the design process, the opening won't likely occur until next summer at the earliest. Since the grant money is supposed to be spent by Dec. 31, Daniels said an extension will be needed, but he doesn't anticipate it being a problem. The county commission expects to receive more grants for the project and is actively seeking money from AmerenUE's energy-efficiency program. If funds become available, it may help the county offset the expense of installing a geothermal system to be used for heating and air conditioning the new building. While commissioners said they don't have a solid figure of how much a geothermal system will cost, it's expected it will pay for itself over a 10- to 20-year period. "We feel optimistic at getting one or more different types of grants," Northern District Dan Hampson said. Engelage said engineering crews will be boring 300 feet deep at the building site and conducting soil tests to determine the type of geothermal system to use. "We feel this will save a bunch of energy costs," Engelage said. "We really want to research this." The commission is expected to meet again this week with representatives from Treanor Architects PA, the design firm, and Septagon, the project manager, to hammer out interior design details and review other aspects of the building. The bidding process is tentatively scheduled to begin in July with the commission expected to award the bids in August.