Teressa Pace/Photo Editor
It's been more than six months since Jiverly Wong stormed into the American Civic Association in Downtown Binghamton and ended 13 lives.

Until recently the Association had been operating out of two offices in the First Congregational Church, a few hundred feet from the site of the tragedy. Last month it moved back to its previous location at 131 Front St. The move is one of the several steps staff members are taking to put the murders of last spring behind them.

"I think most people are very positive about moving forward and clients are returning for services," said Andrew Baranoski, executive director of the Association.

The only major change, as far as operations go, is that the ACA is not accepting walk-ins because of both security issues and the ongoing construction to parts of the building that were damaged during the shooting. He also added that he and his staff plan to continue examining security issues as time progresses.

After the shooting, Rev. Arthur Suggs offered space in the church to the Association, which allowed the ACA to continue providing its services while the building was undergoing major renovations.

The ACA was established in Binghamton 70 years ago. It provides immigration services that are overseen by the government, such as the processes of obtaining green cards and naturalization, as well as refugee settlement. It also offers classes for immigrants who are learning English.

Wong, a Vietnamese immigrant who lived in Binghamton in the 1980s before moving to California and then back to Binghamton, had lost his job prior to the shooting.

According to Binghamton police, Wong had been attending an English class at the ACA. He also sent a package to a local news station containing photographs of himself with two handguns, his gun permit and his driver's license, as well as a two-page letter written in broken English.

After he killed 13 people, most of who were in an English class at the time, he turned his gun on himself. On the day of the shootings, many BU students were traveling home for spring break. A text message alert warning students to avoid Main and Front streets because of the shooting was sent from the University at 2:15 p.m., hours after the shooting began.

According to a report from the Press & Sun-Bulletin, there has been discussion on how the community can move forward and prevent another similar tragedy from occurring.

The article noted that on the day of the shooting, there was so much frequency between cell phones of Binghamton residents in the area that police signals could not get through. Broome County does have override equipment for these situations, but no one at the scene had been trained to use it.

Brett Chellis, the director of emergency management services for Broome County, stated in the report that since the day of the attack, employees are being trained in these phone systems. He also noted the importance of a unified command center where government officials, the police force and firefighters would work side-by-side to deal with a crisis.

"The organization has received tremendous support from the community," Baranoski said. "Without this we could not move forward."

In his thanks, he mentioned Suggs, the rest of the church, many individuals and local businesses as well as Binghamton University.