Committee reviews site history and environmental testing plan for proposed Middletown dispatch center

The Public Safety 911 Center Building Committee reviewed the history of a proposed dispatch-site parcel and a staff recommendation to perform a limited environmental site investigation before advancing construction plans.

The director told the committee the property "originally, it was a Nike missile site from 1955 to '68 with the missile silos in the rear of the property." He said the site later served as an Army Reserve center from 1970 until 2006 and that the city acquired the property in 2012. The building on site now houses the city’s emergency operations center, a training room and storage for city departments and contains the master site for the Motorola radio system.

Staff told the committee that Silver Petrucelli & Associates conducted the feasibility study (completed in 2024) and subcontracted geotechnical work to Lanigan (spelled variously in the discussion). The director described the investigation sequence: "phase 1 is noninvasive... Phase 2 is invasive where we'll do borings, 2 inch borings throughout the property," explaining that phase 2 would determine whether contaminants exist and, if so, their extent and the type of cleanup that would be required.

Committee members emphasized that the testing is meant to "rule out" contamination before committing to a long-lived public-safety facility. The director noted that remediation needs would affect project scope and budget and that further committee discussion would be required if testing indicated significant cleanup needs.