The city is taking over a road leading to the Hutchinson Metro Center and the 911-call center site which is currently in its planning phase. A City Council vote on Thursday, April 1 named the street Marconi Street.
The city will map Marconi Street and take its maintenance from Simone Development, the builder and operator of the Hutchinson Metro Center office park at 1200-50 Waters Place.
The vote follows a decision by the city to reduce the height of the backup 911 call center nearly 10 stories to about 250-feet. It will be constructed just north of the Hutchinson Metro Center and south of Pelham Parkway.
The street was named after the Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi. Marconi received the first patent for sending wireless signals in 1896. Marconi’s work was the precursor to radio and wireless telephone technology. He won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1909.
“I think that it is great that they are naming it after Marconi whose experiments with radio waves were a major breakthrough,” said John Bonizio, president of the Association of Merchants and Professionals of Westchester Square.
It is not yet clear what will happen to the guards’ station that currently occupies the entrance to the Hutchinson Metro Center.
Joseph Kelleher who manages Hutchinson Metro Center said that he is confident the city will do a great service in providing public access to the office park and 911 call center.
“The city is mapping the road to give them access to the 911 call center,” Kelleher said. “I assume they will make it into a four-lane street with sidewalks complying with their own guidelines. Currently, Industrial Street is landscaped by the Hutchinson Metro Center, and is well maintained.”
The city is in negotiations to purchase the call center property from Simone Development.
The city announced recently that it would also look into building a direct access road from the Hutchinson River Parkway into both the call center facility and the Hutchinson Metro Center. A $1.1 million study of the feasibility of the proposal begins shortly.
