Led by First Selectman Jim Lash, the brass, hearts full of hope and heads full of dreams of what will be, broke ground after delivering speechlets hailing the start of the project 40 years in the pipeline.

Peter Tesei, chairman of the Board of Estimate and Taxation (BET), said the project had been three years in the pipeline when he was born.

I am 37, he said, and this new public safety complex has been on the way 40 years.

Most touching were words spoken by Joan Caldwell, a 40-year veteran and moderator pro tempore of the Representative Town Meeting (RTM).

I remember when that rubble over there was a Nash auto dealership and then the Greenwich Police administration building, she said pointing to a mountain of bricks, broken staircases and lumber with electrical wires, pipes and metal poking out of it.

The debris from a demolition was the police administration building until a week ago when wrecking balls knocked it down.

The auto dealership was to be a temporary police headquarters, Caldwell recalled. We talked and studied about a new police headquarters and now, 40 years later, this new Public Safety Complex is getting underway.

When it is completed, it will be a tribute to the men and women who protect us. God bless it and them.

When completed in 30 months, the Safety Complex will house the headquarters of Greenwich police, fire and GEMS Emergency Medical Services under one roof.

Also on the drawing board for a makeover, after the Safety Complex is completed, is the fire department headquarters across Bruce Place. An atrium will connect the two, providing a new edifice in the downtown business district.

Lash said the development marks the start of a new era for the downtown business district. A multi-tiered parking garage for town workers also is involved in construction of the Safety Complex.

It will be great to have fire, police and emergency medical services administration all together, said Charlee Tufts, head of GEMS. We will all be together, using training classrooms, staying in touch, with no breaks in communication, especially important in responding to disasters, manmade or natural from hurricanes and floods to terrorist attacks and possible problems from malfunctions at Indian Point nuke plants.

Selectman Peter Crumbine noted that the crumbling old police administration building was the poster child for not getting things done. Selectman Penny Monahan, who worked in the now demolished building as executive secretary to several police chiefs, recalled that the environment was, to say the least, challenging.

The roof leaked. Plaster was cracked. Cops had to pack into the crummy lunchroom like sardines, she said.

I'm thrilled, Police Chief Jim Walters said before he put his hands around a shovel as the ground-breaking was about to well get off the ground.

I credit Jim Lash for taking this bull by the horns and then finally getting the construction on the way, he said.

Fire Chief Sandy Anderson observed that Greenwich has a reputation for having the best. When this is completed, you are going to have the best headquarters for the best Fire Department, Police Department and Emergency Medical Services operations in Connecticut.

And because of this, we're all going to be able to work together better as a team. Good teamwork makes us all more efficient at serving and protecting the people, Anderson said.

Superintendent of Buildings Al Monelli estimated the Safety Complex would be finished in 30 months.

A contract between the Town of Greenwich and the contractor who won the bid was signed in the Town Hall Purchasing Department 15 minutes after the groundbreaking. Inking it for the town was Joan Sullivan, head of purchasing.

Contractor Sam Dizenzo, president of Worth Construction Co. in Bethel, the other signer, told the Greenwich Citizen the Safety Complex job possibly may be finished ahead of the published completion date.

His company, a big construction kid in Greenwich, also is building the new Hamilton Avenue Magnet School and the Greenwich YMCA expansion.

Overseeing the Safety Complex construction will be Rich Satnick, a construction and engineering supervisor from the big building firm URS of New York and California.

We'll be on the scene from start to finish, 24/7, he said.