Mangano announces funding for new emergency call center

County Executive Edward Mangano on Thursday announced a move to upgrade a 911 emergency call center and double its number of consoles by shifting $7 million in capital budget funds from other projects.

The move follows a brutal nor'easter that hit last month and overloaded the system at the new Public Safety Center in Westbury, where Mangano announced the fund shift.

"The men and women who staff our current 911 center [in Garden City] have done their best with a bad situation," Mangano said. "But just this week, as relentless rains soaked Nassau County, workers had to construct a makeshift method of keeping the rain from pouring down on the computers and the staff. That just cannot stand."

Mangano said the project includes an upgrade to the system, infrastructure, networking and software. Most of the money for the project would be shifted from proposed information technology upgrades and a $1.5-million road project in Bethpage. "Those projects will be put off a year," he said.

The new center will have 38 console positions, compared with 19 now. Mangano said no new employees would be hired for the expanded service.

Mangano said the emergency center by police headquarters also will remain and "calls can be switched there if needed."

The call center currently handles between 2,000 and 2,400 calls in an average 24-hour period. During the March storm, Mangano said, more than 11,000 calls came in - and many had to be routed to Suffolk and even as far away as Albany. "The events of the March storm served as a warning," Mangano said.

Mangano's move must be approved by two-thirds of the county legislature because it involves bonding.