Mount Vernon Volunteer Fire Department will be constructing a training center at the Bryant site owned by the city.
The cost is estimated at roughly $140,635, with the department having $130,000 committed to the construction at the moment. The remaining $10,000 will be raised from donations and pancake breakfast proceeds.
The site will feature a 170 foot by 100 foot concrete pad.
The department will connect to the hydrant nearby at the city work site, with plans to upgrade the flows of water to be beneficial. As well, two shipping container sites will be utilized on the site. The west side shipping container will be used for burns type trainings.
The east side will be used for clean trainings. The logistic training building will house training props, equipment and serve as a shelter and training area for the department.
Fire chief Nathan Goodlove said that the department had a $40,000 donation from an estate that served as the seed money for the project, and $50,000 from the rural fire district reserved for the project.
“The location is absolutely ideal for this training center,” Goodlove said. “One of the things we’re excited about is that we can set up containers for what type of training we want to do.
Kirkwood’s center has a very sterile environment to train at for firefighting. This will give us a chance to work on some of the fires we encounter to make things as realistic as possible.”
Goodlove said that while the center is not new, as other communities have them, it will provide training space for a number of area departments.
One of the things that they are excited about is basing some of their designs on what firefighters might encounter at homes in Mount Vernon.
The center will also allow departments to train for rural and urban fire settings, depending on the training they need to utilize.
“This will benefit everyone in our department as well as other volunteer fire departments and first responders in the industry,” Goodlove said. Council member Scott Rose asked how it was possible to build something at the costs being quoted.
City administrator Chris Nosbisch said because the department was a volunteer fire department, they have drawn on connections the department has for some of the quotes and will utilize volunteers to the construction of the training center.
“The amount of volunteer hours and donations help to reduce the cost, with the most significant cost being the concrete pad,” Nosbisch said. “Workers from the city will do some of that work.”
The department will also use some of the old concrete and asphalt waste located at the work site for their own base and clean up a portion of the work site for their own use.
The first phase of the construction will include the concrete pad and burn site for roughly $90,000. The clean site trailer will be phase 2, with a $31,000 price tag. The logistics and training shed will be last with a $25,000 price tag.
The site could be used as a region wide training course and be utilized by outside instructors.