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Dispatch center to serve SW Conn. in the event of attack, disaster
By TONY SPINELLI
Connecticut Post Online
BRIDGEPORT — Once it was the home of Producto Corp. Then it was vacant industrial land. Now it's on the way to providing greater safety for southwestern Connecticut.
Rising off Housatonic Avenue in the city's South End, a new, 911-emergency operations command and dispatch center is designed to serve 14 towns in the corridor from Stratford to Stamford in the event of terrorist attack, emergency or natural disaster.
The facility -- scheduled to open in September -- was shown off Monday for a variety of media and to Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and Norwalk Mayor Richard Moccia by Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch. Lieberman talked about the significance of the region as a high-risk urban area eligible to apply for federal homeland security grants, in part due to this regional center.
"This is not only going to perform service for people in the local area, "Lieberman said. "It's going to perform service that has national implications.
"We are right on the Sound, we've got the Long Island ferry I-95 all the traffic moving between New York and Boston in this corridor. So in terms of terrorism," he said, "this is a potentially vulnerable area."
The emergency operations center will come into play in times of natural and manmade crisis, Scott Appleby, the city's director of emergency management and homeland security, said.
The emergency operations/dispatch center itself will cost about $5.4 million to complete and another $8 million to equip with state-of-the-art communications technology. It is part of a $40 million public facilities complex.
The new 15,000-square-foot dispatch center will combine the police dispatch facilities, now in the basement of City Hall on Lyon Terrace, with the 911 emergency response and fire dispatch center, now at fire headquarters on Congress Street.
"It will improve communications from Bridgeport down to Stamford," Appleby said.
Moccia, who attended, said there will be a ripple effect of improved safety throughout the region.
"All of our cities will be safer," he said.
Copyright 2008 MediaNews Group, Inc.
Connecticut Post Online
BRIDGEPORT — Once it was the home of Producto Corp. Then it was vacant industrial land. Now it's on the way to providing greater safety for southwestern Connecticut.
Rising off Housatonic Avenue in the city's South End, a new, 911-emergency operations command and dispatch center is designed to serve 14 towns in the corridor from Stratford to Stamford in the event of terrorist attack, emergency or natural disaster.
The facility -- scheduled to open in September -- was shown off Monday for a variety of media and to Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and Norwalk Mayor Richard Moccia by Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch. Lieberman talked about the significance of the region as a high-risk urban area eligible to apply for federal homeland security grants, in part due to this regional center.
"This is not only going to perform service for people in the local area, "Lieberman said. "It's going to perform service that has national implications.
"We are right on the Sound, we've got the Long Island ferry I-95 all the traffic moving between New York and Boston in this corridor. So in terms of terrorism," he said, "this is a potentially vulnerable area."
The emergency operations center will come into play in times of natural and manmade crisis, Scott Appleby, the city's director of emergency management and homeland security, said.
The emergency operations/dispatch center itself will cost about $5.4 million to complete and another $8 million to equip with state-of-the-art communications technology. It is part of a $40 million public facilities complex.
The new 15,000-square-foot dispatch center will combine the police dispatch facilities, now in the basement of City Hall on Lyon Terrace, with the 911 emergency response and fire dispatch center, now at fire headquarters on Congress Street.
"It will improve communications from Bridgeport down to Stamford," Appleby said.
Moccia, who attended, said there will be a ripple effect of improved safety throughout the region.
"All of our cities will be safer," he said.
Copyright 2008 MediaNews Group, Inc.
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