5.18.2026 - Mobile Public Safety Command Center Ribbon Cutting

Good morning everyone. Uh thanks for coming out for the uh inauguration here of our public safety command center. A few weeks ago uh public safety agencies from Forever had an afteraction meeting in collaboration with uh Chris Pekham from the city council and we discussed some opportunity areas as it related to public safety command and emergency operations centers. Uh so we used some

resources that were already readily available to us and repurposed them with the partnership of EMS and fire. Uh got some feedback and put together what you see behind us today, which is a public safety command center that's going to be featured at many of our special events down at our waterfront. So, we're very excited where city is going with events down at the waterfront, but we also want

to show a collaborative effort between all of our public safety uh entities and have a place where people know they can look for this at special events and that's where the help is going to be.

So, from the police department side, I'm very excited that we have this type of uh product that we can put out. Uh more importantly, it's going to be a beacon for help that people can see it and go to it. uh but also we can collaborate and work together as a team here with our operations plans and make sure that uh the public is safe and that we're doing it professionally as well. So I'm

going to introduce Beth Fonce from uh chief of EMS to come up and say a few words.

Good morning. Um this uh new piece of equipment allows us to um at public safety events be able to ensure that all of our citizens are safe. Um, this particular trailer has a section that can be partitioned off to focus as kind of a walk-in for people that injure themselves at events. Um, it gets our officers in a in the event of uh in an event that we can have a place

This was a former CO trailer um that the city has revitalized to become an important piece of equipment that the city has um to have some inter agency operability. So, we're looking forward to making sure that we use this piece of equipment to the best of our ability. And again, it's a beacon for people to know where they can go for help. Thank you.

Um, I I just want to thank everybody for coming out today. This is exactly what we do in Fall River. We repurpose a piece of equipment that we saw we needed badly during the 41in blizzard that we may need during storms. And we don't mind putting it on the waterfront so we're ready and prepared, but we hope we don't have to use it for those kind of crisises. But that's exactly what we're

doing here today, christitioning this so we know we can move it around and get to a spot and make sure we have the team on hand with the resources they need to tackle it. Very, very important, very, very innovative. I want to congratulate uh JT and Beth F especially was the driver behind this. And I at the same time, I want to introduce a few of our elected officials that also took the

time to come up here today to help us christen this very important piece of equipment. Um, State Representative Alan Sylvia, City Councelor Chris Peekham, and City Councelor Michael Canuel. I know Chris Peekham wanted to say a few words, so I'll turn it over to him.

Thank you, Mayor. I wrote a few words.

Um, we gather here today for the ribbon cutting ceremony of our new mobile emergency operations center. Fall River faces unique challenges due to our geography. Our emergency services must respond not only within city limits, but also across the vast waterway, a large forested area, and now a new railway corridor.

Add to that our many large-scale public events, and the need for a flexible mobile command capability becomes clear.

During the blizzard of 2026, I had the opportunity to work alongside our first responders during the initial emergency response. As always, the case after a major event, the afteraction review highlighted areas where we could improve.

Just days after the storm, I spoke with Mayor Coogan about the urgent need to upgrade our emergency operation capabilities.

That conversation led to a resolution filed and unanimously adopted by the council on March 10th of this year. On April 2nd, our first committee on public safety meeting took place. Just 46 days later, we are here today to dedicate one of the first tangible results of that plan, a new mobile emergency operations trailer. This was an offshoot initiative strongly recommended by EMA Chief Rick

Aguia and the mayor had recommended it uh previously in discussions.

But this trailer represents far more than just equipment. It stands as proof of what can be accomplished when a clear plan is put in place and executed with purpose. It is a result of an expedited yet thoughtful process driven by one priority, the safety of our residents.

This project succeeded because of our public safety agencies working together as one team. The city council and the mayor's office collaborated closely, united by a shared goal of protecting our community. I want to thank Mayor Coogan for his partnership on this program. I also thank the members of the public safety committee as well the chiefs and dedicated staff of every department who worked tirelessly to make

this a reality. A special thank you goes out to EMS Chief Beth Fonts who found the funding within our own budget to fully outfit this trailer wrapping it.

Uh there's going to be a future awning allowing us to complete this project at no additional cost to the taxpayer. I also want to recognize acting chief fire chief Bacon, and EMA Chief Aguia. Your expertise and commitment have been an unvaluable blessing to the city of Fall River. I'd like to thank you all today for joining us and just know with this trailer safe Fall River is a safer place today. Thank you.

So this trailer was initially bought for CO we did all of our CO testing for the citizens of Fall River. um out of this trailer. It was uh bought out of the car's money and so we just took and repurposed it what we had and we took um money that we had left in our um capital and redid the wrapping of the trailer and um everything else that we're going

to do will be um done with whatever equipment that we currently have. It will just be repurposed into this into this trailer for operations.

inside. We have the ability to have uh our plan is to have a landline in there.

Um so that way when the mayor's office and the citizens are trying to contact somebody that they have a number to call and get somebody instead of trying to operate off of cell phones, so to speak.

Um our plan is to be able to have um inter agency communication with our radios, mobile radios, our landline radios. There is some talk of if we had an incident to be able to have our own scene dispatcher.

So that way we'll be able to run on the scene from all from one location.

There is the ability to um have our bike units have a place to run out of so we'll all be aware of an incident as it's happening as the commanders of our different agencies.

Currently, our maintenance division here at the fire department is drops whatever and they they get called to tow the trailer wherever it needs to go.

Thank you everyone for your time and your attendance today. Thank you.