3.25.2010: Leadership Columbia City/County Government

by Barb King

Our day started with a tour of the Boone County Courthouse. I, of course, set off the alarm and had to be waved down with the wand. They found a watch and a button I was trying to sneak in. We then moved to the new City Hall where our day slowed to a crawl. We waited in a room for a half hour for Mayor Pro-Tem Laura Nauser who was running late. After that we took a tour of the new City Hall building, which consisted of staring at a wall, where we were told, on the other side temporary cubicles were set up. As you can probably guess, my highlight of the morning was setting off the alarm at the Courthouse.

Things picked up after that, we went to the Joint Communications Office of Emergency Management/911 Center. Zim Schwartze, the director, took us into the 911 Center and talked about the function and protocol of the office. They took a couple of calls while we were there. It was all very fascinating.

The afternoon was down right lively with a tour of the Boone County Jail. I rode over with Lindsay in her Mercedes Benz. We passed the jail the first time and had to ask for directions at a transition house down the road. A couple of men were having a cigarette outside and through their laughter they told us it was about a half-mile back. I don't think they would have thought it was so amusing had we been in my Toyota.

The day ended at the new Police Training Facility south of town. We sat down with an emergency services panel. It was good to learn they work well together, a couple of them were even related. They had a really neat computerized firearms simulator that we were going to get to try, but the trainer for it couldn't find a babysitter. So we were all invited back another time.

Lesson learned . . . we have a lot of very sophisticated expensive equipment in our 911 center, and I am glad we do.