County Opens New Emergency Operations Center

Essex County emergency responders now have a new, central location to use in case of a crisis.

County officials showed off the new Essex County Emergency Operations Center behind Codey Arena in West Orange on Wednesday. It followed the Essex County Chiefs of Police Association meeting, and the chiefs got a tour of the facility.

Essex County Sheriff Armando Fontoura said there is no other operations center like it at the county level and it emulates what the state police have. "This has been a labor of love," he said of the new facility in the space that was once home to the New Jersey Devils practice rink.

The facility cost about $1 million to convert and outfit, which includes money from federal and county grants and partnerships. It replaces a facility in Orange that cost $600,000 per year to rent.

The facility gives the county interoperability communications capabilities, which means different emergency agencies will be able to communicate with each other. Fontoura said it has been a concern since the Sept. 11 attacks that emergency agencies couldn't communicate with each other, but now the county will provide ways for agencies to connect during an emergency. "People can communicate with everyone from here the way it should be," he said.

Additionally, there are facilities for the K-9 unit and the bomb squad.

Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo, Jr. said as soon as the Devils moved out of Codey Arena to Newark he contacted Fontoura about moving into the building. It's the perfect facility, he said, and in the middle of Essex County.

Robert Laurino, acting Essex County prosecutor, said the facility is the kind of place where everyone can come together to work when a crisis arises.

Millburn Police Chief David Barber had the chance to tour the facility Wednesday morning as part of the chiefs meeting and called it wonderful. He said it gives emergency responders a central location with better communication capabilities. "If we can't use our own, we have access to their system," he said. Plus the county is giving each municipality its own radio to connect.

While Wednesday was the official grand opening for the facility, it wasn't the first time it was used. Officials used it to coordinate the task force that investigated the Fairfield police shooting and to coordinate efforts to respond to recent flooding.

Fontoura said the task force for the Fairfield shooting worked in the facility for 10 days, where it could be isolated to do its work. Laurino said the room was packed with people and their work. It was a textbook way to investigate a crime, he said. It led to a break in the case and an arrest two weeks ago.