State-of-the-art facility to house MNRECC, serving Winthrop, Revere, and Chelsea.
Special to the Transcript
Winthrop Town Manager
Tony Marino speaks at the
ceremony.
Local leaders gathered on Friday, April 17, to break ground on the restoration of the historic McKinley School, a project that will soon serve as the high-tech nerve center for Winthrop’s emergency services.
The defunct building at 65 Yeamans Street is being transformed into a mixed-use facility anchored by the Metro North Regional Emergency Communications Center (MNRECC). The center represents a landmark partnership between the Town of Winthrop, the City of Chelsea, and the City of Revere to modernize public safety infrastructure across the region.
A Major Leap for Local Public Safety
For Winthrop, the move to a regional dispatch model is expected to unlock vital state funding, centralize municipal costs, and significantly expand emergency response capacity.
Winthrop Town Manager Tony Marino, who attended the ceremony alongside Revere Mayor Patrick Keefe and Chelsea City Manager Fidel Maltez, noted that the transition has been a long-standing priority for the town.
“Our chiefs at the time came to me and said we needed a new community and we needed to get in a RECC center,” Marino said, noting that the project has been on the radar since 2022. “We were able to get across the finish line when Mayor Keefe got elected and Fidel came over from Reading.”
Regional Collaboration
The project is being hailed as a model for inter-municipal cooperation. By sharing a “tier-one” dispatch facility, the three communities can leverage state-of-the-art technology that might be cost-prohibitive for a single municipality to maintain alone.
The groundbreaking was attended by a large contingent of regional officials, including State Senator Lydia Edwards and State Representative Jeffrey R. Turco, both of whom represent Winthrop and were instrumental in securing support for the initiative.
“This project is a perfect example of what we can achieve through creative municipal planning and strong regional partnerships,” said Mayor Patrick Keefe. “We are transforming [this space] into a hub that will keep our residents safe… for generations to come.”
Preservation and
Education
In addition to the regional dispatch center, the 100-year-old McKinley School building will house an early childhood education center for Revere Public Schools. The redevelopment is a landmark preservation project, utilizing the existing architectural structure to meet modern community needs.
Representative Jeffrey R. Turco, a former student at the McKinley School, expressed his excitement at seeing the building return to life as a centerpiece for the community, bridging his priorities of education and public safety.
Looking Ahead
The facility is slated to open in 2027, coinciding with the 100th anniversary of the building’s last major renovation in 1927. Once operational, the MNRECC will streamline communications between Winthrop’s first responders and their neighbors, ensuring faster, more coordinated responses to regional emergencies.