FirstNet donation gives Safety Town in East Meadow new life

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FirstNet, Built with AT&T, has donated $110,000 to the Nassau County Police Department Foundation so it can renovate and refurbish its Safety Town education facility in East Meadow.

First opened in 1972 and operated by the police foundation, Safety Town is an educational center and miniature village that provides children with a variety of public safety learning experiences.

Each year, more than 10,000 third-graders from across Nassau County visit Safety Town, and are taught traffic, pedestrian and bicycle safety by police department crossing guards — first in a classroom, and then through a unique “hands-on” experience using bicycles and miniature electric vehicles.

A 10-year analysis of bicycle accidents in Nassau found that children who attended Safety Town were 10 times less likely to be involved in an accident than a child who did not receive training, according to a release.

FirstNet’s support allowed the police foundation to revitalize the aging center, to help it be ready in time for National Safety Month in June.

This included removing and replacing more than 20 dilapidated buildings within Safety Town, adding professional landscaping throughout the campus, and repairing and beautifying other critical infrastructure elements.

The new and improved Safety Town was carefully planned to ensure children can learn traffic safety for another 50 years, officials said.

“Safety Town is a very important piece of community training for the NCPD,” police commissioner Patrick Ryder said, in a release. “At 50 years old, it was in a desperate need for a renovation.”

FirstNet is a dedicated, nationwide communications platform designed to upgrade public safety communications with new capabilities that support incident response from first responders.

FirstNet is designed to allow these public safety professionals to connect to the critical information they need every day, and in an emergency, help keep them — and their communities — safe.

Advancing public safety was the core mission of FirstNet when the First Responder Network Authority and AT&T joined forces.

“Now five years since its launch, that mission continues to inspire us to support initiatives and programs like Safety Town who share a commitment to creating safer communities and keeping our kids safe,” said Judy Cavalieri, vice president and general manager of AT&T New York. “We are proud to support this program.”

“Having gone to Safety Town as a child, I am especially happy that the foundation is continuing this tradition,” said Eric Blumencranz, chair of the Nassau County Police Department Foundation. “We are grateful for the generous support from FirstNet, Built with AT&T, that brought this important community training facility into the 21st century.

Safety Town is vital to building relationships between law enforcement and youth, and we are proud to be involved in such an important endeavor.”