On-line news article about our recent move

[Guest guest]

The article can be found at

http://www.californianonline.com/news/stories/20041228/localnews/1796154.html

with a couple of photographs taken by the newspaper reporter. (Most

everybody was ducking below monitor height or stepping out of frame...)

They came in on my day off, Monday.

There are also some inaccuracies in the story, but what the heck: it's the

media! (CHP Headquarters? Well, the local ummm... " Area quarters " as CHP

Headquarters is actually in Sacramento.)

Here's the text, for the Internet-challenged on the list:

CHP moves headquarters; New facilities larger, with room to grow

PUBLIC SAFETY

By DANIA AKKAD

The Salinas Californian

[photos by Mc/Salinas Californian]

California Highway Patrol dispatcher Jeff Anadon answers emergency calls

Monday at the CHP's new offices on Blanco Road in Salinas.

[another photo - of the BACK entrance within the secured parking area]

Exterior of the new California Highway Patrol headquarters at 960 E. Blanco

Road, Salinas.

DETAILS

The Monterey County-area California Highway Patrol headquarters has moved

to 960 E. Blanco Road in Salinas. The main number for the new office is

[831] 796-2100, and the non-emergency dispatch number is [831] 796-2160.

The Monterey County-area California Highway Patrol has moved to a new $5

million location in Salinas with three times more space -- and room to

expand even more.

With a soft pink and gray interior, expansive rooms and more windows, the

18,194-square-foot facility on East Blanco Road, next to Fresh Express, is

making most employees a lot happier, said CHP Public Information Officer

s.

" Although it doesn't really affect the service people get, it allows for

more growth, " s said Monday. " Really, the public has been getting

great services despite the [previous] substandard facilities. "

Plans to move to the Blanco Road location had been in the works for at

least a decade as the facility off Highway 68, at the north end of Toro

Park Estates, became a tighter and tighter fit for the growing office, he

said.

That office was built in the late 1960s, before women had joined the CHP

force.

It had only a makeshift locker room for women officers who have come on

board since then. The facility will most likely be sold to another state

agency, s said.

About a month ago, CHP administrators, dispatchers and officers started

moving from the Portola Road office, where they had been for about 30

years. Dec. 13 was the first business day at the new headquarters. [The

Comm Center started operations on Dec. 8]

The new building has a larger garage where the CHP Crown patrol

cars are repaired and washed, more secure storage space for evidence

gathered at accident and crime scenes and a spacious communications center

where dispatchers answer emergency calls around the clock.

" It's helped morale because we're not sitting on top of each other, " said

Marsha Stout, public safety dispatch supervisor, standing near the busy --

but serenely decorated -- communications room.

Contact Dania Akkad at

dakkad@....

Originally published Tuesday, December 28, 2004