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POSTED: Friday, Oct. 30, 2009

Bellingham's Olympics center to live on after Vancouver Games

BELLINGHAM - Local, state and federal agencies will have a place to gather officers and ideas for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and beyond, at the new Olympics Coordination Center in north Bellingham.

The center will provide a place for agencies - from Homeland Security and the FBI to the Whatcom County Sheriff's Office and Washington State Patrol - to get together to face any issues that might arise with the Olympics, which start in February.

The center is in a former warehouse on Port of Bellingham property near Bellingham International Airport.

The center's role is to provide a communications link for federal, state and local agencies, plus representatives from Canadian agencies. Their focus will be safety during the Olympics, plus smooth operations at the border during the international games.

"This was a warehouse (in) January of this year," Mark Beaty, federal coordinator for the Olympics, said at a tour of the center Thursday, Oct. 29 "This thing got turned around quicker than any project I've ever seen in federal government."

The federally funded building, which came in under budget at less than $4 million, has offices, conference rooms, and a large main room called the bullpen, with clusters of desks and computers arranged for easy intelligence and idea sharing.

So far, the center has only hosted training exercises, but activity will start to ramp up the week before the Olympics open. Throughout the games, the center will be staffed by about 40 people during event hours.

Once the Olympics end, the center will become a place for agencies to gather to face issues ranging from terrorist attacks and health issues, to natural disasters and any other events that require the coordination of multiple agencies.

"We can bring enough people in here to manage a minor incident to something major," said Jeff Parks of the Sheriff's Office.

The building is something that regional law enforcement officers have wanted for some time, Parks said. Congressional funding will cover the lease for two years; after that, agencies that use the building will have to work out who pays for what.

"It's not going to be wasted space," Beaty said. "That building is a good thing for the games, and it's a great thing after the games."