Morris County dedicated its new Public Safety Complex Expansion on Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026, opening a 65,540-square-foot building on West Hanover Avenue in Parsippany Township that puts the county’s public health staff next door to its emergency operations team.
The Morris County Board of County Commissioners cut the ribbon alongside leaders from the New Jersey State Building and Construction Trades Council, county Department of Law and Public Safety staff and more than a dozen trades workers. Construction started last year.
The new building gives the Morris County Division of Public Health dedicated storage for personal protective equipment and garage bays for emergency response vehicles. The project traces back to a Strategic Planning Advisory Committee the commissioners formed after the COVID-19 pandemic. That committee met 64 times to study how the county handles emergencies, and one of its clearest findings was that public health needed to sit closer to the emergency operations staff it works with.
Public Health’s former space on West Hanover Avenue now goes to the Morris County Sheriff’s Office Patrol Division.
“One project, two problems solved,” Commissioner Director Stephen Shaw said.
Shaw presented a Resolution of Honor to David Critchley, president of the Morris, Sussex and Vicinity Building and Construction Trades Council, marking Labor Day and the workers who built the complex. Critchley used the moment to pitch the trades to younger workers. “For every five of us retiring, only two are coming into the trades to replace us. These are good jobs,” he said.
The Musial Group Architects designed the project, with Dobco Group as general contractor and Legacy Construction Management Inc. as construction manager.
The complex is one of three county projects backed by $99.7 million approved by the commissioners, along with a new Criminal Courthouse and a replacement K-9 facility. The county covered 82.2 percent of that funding and 17.8 percent came from the federal American Rescue Plan Act.
The county’s emergency management and public health operations serve Denville along with the rest of Morris County. Residents can sign up for Morris County emergency alerts online.
Photo credit: Morris County
