$530,437  that will be used for a new home  for the Warwick Fire Operations Center (FOC) in one of six government funding bill approved last week according to the office of Congressman Seth  Magaziner.

While the funding still has a few hoops to jump through, James Kwon, Representative Seth Magaziner’s communications director, said that the congressman successfully got the grant through as part of the package, which was signed by President Joe Biden, averting a government shutdown.

The current Fire Operations Center, a small square brick building which has been in use for 70 years, is located on Sandy Lane near the Department of Public Works.

“This is a tremendous fit for the city- this has been one of the things on our to-do list for a long time,”  Fire Chief Peter McMichael said. “We’ve wanted to move to a different location and a more updated building for quite some time, and this would allow us to do it largely on the federal government’s dime.” The center will be located in the Potowomut Fire Station.

The funding for the center was initially one of a group of community projects throughout Rhode Island’s Second Congressional District requested by Magaziner. Fourteen other projects were approved as part of the first group of government funding bills passed earlier this month, though the FOC funding was not part of them. A previous request for funding the FOC was included in a bill that died on the Senate floor last September.

The Second District, which Magaziner represents, covers the southern and western parts of the state, stretching from Burrillville to Narragansett and Westerly to the Wanskuck neighborhood of Providence.

 “This project has been a priority for Rep. Magaziner because it will equip Warwick first responders with the tools they need to do their jobs safely and improve emergency response times to keep Warwick residents safe,” Kwon said.

McMichael said that another main intent of the funding from the Fire Department’s perspective is about making sure that the station’s dispatchers are not working in outdated facilities.

McMichael said that the Fire Department would be receiving a “general upgrade” in terms of equipment, noting that the Potowomut station would receive up-to-date radio systems and communications equipment.

Asked why the new FOC would be in Potowomut instead of a more central location, McMichael said that the Potowomut station has the most space available, and that the FOC’s location would not have a negative effect on response times.

“We operate on the statewide RISCON (Rhode Island Statewide Communications Network) system,” McMichael said. “There are antennas located throughout the state of Rhode Island that are able to be hit with our radios. The days of having to have [the facility] in a centralized location for radio reception purposes… no longer exist for us.”

There is a 25% cost-share on the item, which McMichael said will be funded in this year’s citywide budget.

The chief said that he does not currently have a timeline for the opening of the new facility, which the Fire Department will start focusing on once the funding has passed.

There are no plans at the moment for the facility that the FOC currently occupies, according to McMichael.