The ceremonial opening of Hamburg’s new dispatch center had to wait a few minutes Thursday, while an emergency call — one of 150,000 calls handled each year — was dispatched.

But unlike the former cramped dispatch facility in Town Hall, the state-of-the-art center accommodated the dozen or so visitors gathered outside the radio room for speeches.

“Our dispatch was working basically in a hallway,” Hamburg Councilwoman Joan Kesner explained.

Jumbled wires were exposed, and prisoners being escorted to court had to walk past dispatchers.

“When I go back to the old dispatch center, now I wonder how we ever got the job done,” Senior Public Safety Dispatcher Tom Taylor said.

The new center and prisoner lockup area, in a building behind Town Hall adjoining the Police Department, cost about $750,000. Civilian dispatchers took their first call Sept. 16, 35 years to the day when the village dispatch moved in with the town.

Town funds and a $250,000 state grant obtained by Sen. William T. Stachowski, D-Lake View, paid for the new center. Assistant Chief John Conlon said one of the lockup’s “repeat customers” already has complimented the town on the new facilities.

“This truly is a regional dispatch center,” Hamburg Supervisor Steven J. Walters said.

The center dispatches police calls for the Hamburg town and village police, Blasdell police, 17 fire departments, the Southtowns HazMat Team and Hamburg Water Rescue. It has room for more.

Orchard Park town officials are looking at routing Orchard Park calls through Hamburg. Town Board members toured the facility three weeks ago.

“We’ve talked about this for a while, as far as what we can do with nearby communities,” Orchard Park Councilman David Kaczor said. “There’s some potential there. It’s obviously got to be studied closely.”

Hamburg Police Chief Carmen Kesner said that the facility has room to expand and that it could accommodate calls from several other agencies.