As they ceremoniously broke ground on a new public safety building Tuesday morning in Ballston Spa, elected leaders in Saratoga County stressed the importance of the 63,000-square foot project.

"I can’t express it enough that this facility was needed a long time ago," said Stillwater Town Supervisor Ed Kinowski, the chairman of the county’s board of supervisors.

Calling it "transformational for the future of public safety," Zurlo says the facility will bring his office under the same roof as the emergency services, probation and public health departments.

"In the event we have a major emergency or major event that happens in the county, we will be able to coordinate our efforts better, being together,” Zurlo said.

The project, which will be located next to the current sheriff's office and jail in Ballston Spa, also triples the space for the communications center, where dispatchers handle about 300,000 calls a year within the fastest growing county in Upstate New York.

"For the staff that I have, taking in that magnitude of calls in one year, it is just going to continue to grow as more people come," Zurlo said.

The building will be named in memory of late Galway Supervisor Paul Lent, who advocated for the project before the recession put it on hold a decade ago.

"Paul had worked for our county for decades. He put his heart and soul into public service," said Kinowski, who worked with Lent for years before Lent passed away during an accident on his property this past June.

This time around, leaders say the county's finances are in much better shape. About 80 percent of the $30 million project will be bonded.

"Quite frankly, there have not been any [tax] increases. We are doing it within our tax structure so that is pretty amazing," Kinowski said.

With site work already underway, the new headquarters are slated to be complete by January 2020.

"There is nothing that could indicate this isn’t the right thing to do; this is the right thing to do for our county," Kinowski said.