SKOWHEGAN -- The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday approved a bill from which $500,000 is to be awarded to the Somerset County Emergency Operations Center in Skowhegan.

The funding, to be used to expand the existing center, is part of the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act for fiscal year 2010, according to a release from U.S. Rep. Michael Michaud, D-2nd District.

The bill emphasizes programs that secure borders, ports and airports and helps train local emergency personnel.

"I am pleased that the Congress approved this funding for the emergency-operations center in Skowhegan," Michaud said. "This funding will enhance public safety throughout the region by helping our first responders better communicate and coordinate. The expansion of the center will also increase economic development in the area through job creation and increased economic activity."

Somerset County Communications Center Director Michael Smith said the Emergency Operations Center currently is housed in a training room next to the daily dispatch room, one of 26 Public Service Answering Points in Maine.

Smith said radio and telephone communications originate at the center, coordinating police, fire and government operations during an emergency. There also are connections to the National Weather Service and regional mapping outlets in the event of an incident involving hazardous materials, he said.

Robert Higgins Sr., director of Somerset County Emergency Management, said his department has been working on obtaining the funding since 2003.

"I think it's a fantastic benefit to Somerset County, to the citizens of the county to be able to obtain it," Higgins said of the funding Thursday afternoon. "It's going to be (used) to expand and renovate the existing structure; the place is in need of repair -- we're so crowded up there that emergency management people actually are working in closets."

Higgins said Michaud has been a champion in the first-responder community in Maine and recently visited the facility.

"He is a real hands-on guy," Higgins said. "He recognizes that Somerset County has been subjected to numerous destructive 'all-hazard' events such as the flood of 1987 and the ice storm of 1998. These threats require an adequate and operational facility to protect the lives and property of the citizens in the third-largest county in the state."

The Somerset Emergency Operations Center is where emergency calls originate, not only for Somerset County, but also Kennebec County and the city of Waterville.

In 2003, the Maine Emergency Management Agency conducted an inspection of the Skowhegan facility and documented inadequacies in Somerset County's emergency operations, Higgins said. Twelve emergency-response agencies are housed in the center and several communities with populations exceeding 40,000 residents contract 911 services through the daily dispatch center at the shared facility.

"We've been working on that for quite a few years to try to do something," Higgins said. "This opportunity arose and Somerset County took advantage of the opportunity, back when Phil Roy was a (county) commissioner ... as a way to benefit Somerset County, other than have it come out of local tax dollars, out of county tax."

There is no timetable for a ground-breaking for the expansion, he said.

Smith, the communications center director, said the center is only about 500 square feet in size.

"The overall size of the Emergency Operations Center that we currently have is completely inadequate if we have to staff a complete EOC," Smith said. "I believe the total number of personnel at any one time could exceed 25 that need to be working within the EOC during full activation. At change-over periods ... we could have 45 or 50 people trying to operate inside that facility all at one time."

Doug Harlow -- 474-9534, ext. 342

dharlow@centralmaine.com