For Immediate Release: 6/29/2015 2:59 pm
Worcester, MA (June 29, 2015) - Officials from Worcester, Leicester and the state will gather tomorrow to break ground for the new Worcester Regional Emergency Communications Center.
The event will be at 4:00 PM Tuesday at the site of the new communications center, 2 Coppage Drive in Worcester. Mayor Joseph M. Petty, City Council Public Safety Subcommittee Chair Morris A. Bergman, City Manager Edward M. Augustus, Jr., state Sen. Michael O. Moore, state Rep. Kate D. Campanale, Leicester Board of Selectmen Chair Dianna Provencher and state and local emergency response officials are scheduled to speak.
The communications center will be built by JJ Cardosi, which has a contract for $4,219,060.
The facility will house the 911 regional emergency communications center, the City's Emergency Operations Center and 911 training facility and all administration offices for the City's Emergency Communications Department and Emergency Management Division staff. The Town of Leicester will also house their 911 operations there.
The project will be funded by the City of Worcester, with help from a $1.6 million Regional Public Safety Answering Point Development Grant, awarded in 2010 by the State 911 Department. This project also qualifies for the current Emergency Management Preparedness Grant funds, of which $130,000 has been allocated with no required match.
The Commonwealth continues to make efforts to encourage cities and towns to work together toward regionalizing their 911 Communications Centers, and the City of Worcester was approached in early 2010 to take the lead in this effort for our area. The new communications center will allow the region to work towards this goal. The City and the Town of Leicester reached an agreement in 2014 to regionalize the Town's Public Safety Answering Point in the proposed Regional Center in Worcester.
When the facility opens, it will trigger an estimated $318,238 in additional support funding, facilitate multiple system redundancy and allow space for future expansion when the State requires the City's 911 center to accept all wireless 911 calls directly in the near future; capacity which the City does not currently have.
