PORT GIBSON — Claiborne County’s spruced-up emergency operations center is a far cry from what Johnny Baker was accustomed to when he headed up what was once called “civil defense” for the county in the 1970s.

“We didn’t even have a building,” Baker said. “We just had one truck.”

A $1.5 million renovation in the works for nearly a decade wrapped up officially on Monday, as Baker and other Port Gibson and Claiborne County government stalwarts past and present cut a ceremonial ribbon on the Mississippi 18 facility’s grounds.

Built in 1985, the building that also housed wedding receptions and school-related awards ceremonies was essentially abandoned in 2005 when mold, mildew, faulty wiring and other forms of disrepair moved emergency management into a modular structure next door. In the years since, concern grew neither building could withstand a strong storm or tornado.

Financing lagged until a $750,000 homeland security grant secured for the state by U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson pushed the project along. Claiborne County matched the money with a quarter-million of its own in 2012.

“This has been a 10-year journey,” County Administrator Brenda Buck said.

Thompson, the ranking Democrat of the House Homeland Security Committee, chaired the panel when the anchor program at the federal level was OK’d. His turn as keynote speaker at Monday’s opening ceremony highlighted a need to steer more federal dollars to projects deemed worthy for small communities.

“Some people don’t like earmarks,” Thompson said. “Now, some people of the communities who voted against it want them back. I’m for bringing them back and calling them ‘direct spending.’”

Wiring and plumbing is all new inside the refurbished facility, which neighbors the Claiborne County Road Department building. Structurally, the structure has been redone to withstand winds equivalent to an EF-4 tornado, Claiborne County Emergency Management director Marvin Ratliff said.

Space formerly used as an auditorium will be used for press conferences and public announcements, Ratliff said. Reconstructed office and conference space inside the facility includes a boardroom and communications room, the latter of which has workstations for each position in county and city government to communicate with people during weather-related events, such as hurricane or tornado warnings, and any incident involving Grand Gulf Nuclear Station. Signage on the building’s exterior refers to a “civil defense council”, though the concept has evolved into emergency planning committees in the past decade.

“It also has a place for Alcorn State University and the road department,” Ratliff said. “It’s an improvement from the modular building.”

It also features a small-scale decontamination room for incidents involving hazardous materials.