Media Day at the Brand-New Manatee County Public Safety Center

MANATEE -- The main reason for media-type people to go to the new Manatee County Public Safety Center on April 29, 2010 was to get or renew our press credentials before hurricane season.

A few of us also took a short tour of the facility. Even though the building is so new that most of the furniture and fixtures haven't yet been delivered and installed, it is still an impressive place.

Think of a fortress, only stronger.

It's easy to imagine this place standing up to a hurricane, a terrorist attack, and an alien invasion -- all at once.

And the emergency operation center itself has such a science fiction look that if I ever need to film a "mission control" scene for a space exploration (or alien invasion) movie, this is where I'll do it.