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CORVALLIS — The city of Corvallis and Benton County are working together on an emergency operations center that goes live Tuesday morning.

The goal of the center is to coordinate emergency response to the coronavirus outbreak and support the Benton County Health Department, which will be the lead agency for city and county.

The Corvallis City Council discussed the new center at its Monday meeting at the downtown fire station. In the room were City Manager Mark Shepard, Fire Chief Ken McCarthy, City Attorney Jim Brewer and City Recorder Carla Holzworth. Mayor Biff Traber conducted the meeting remotely, with the nine councilors participating via speakerphone.

The emergency operations center (EOC) will be headquartered at the city’s fire training facility on the Public Works Department property and will be staffed by two 20-person teams. One will be led by McCarthy and the other by Brian Lee, emergency manager with Benton County.

The teams, which will work 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. shifts on consecutive days and then take two days off, will consist of city and county employees from a variety of departments, including fire, police and public works.