STEVENS POINT − City officials and residents recently got their first peek at a proposed safety center planned for city’s East Park Commerce Center.
Mid-State Technical College proposed the safety center, which will be a partnership between the school and multiple city departments, including the Stevens Point Fire Department, Stevens Point Police Department and Stevens Point Public Works Department. It will be a central location for firefighters across the Mid-State coverage area to get training they’ve previously had to drive to the Milwaukee area to get, Shelly Mondeik, president of Mid-State Technical College, said during a May 4 meeting of the Stevens Point City Plan Commission.
Mondeik said when she started at Mid-State in 2017, she was hearing that firefighters needed more localized training opportunities. Volunteer firefighters didn’t want to drive two hours to Wisconsin Rapids to train at the fire tower, she said. The school worked on creating partnerships with communities to provide localized training centers, including one in Marshfield and one in Stevens Point
Stevens Point Fire Chief J.B. Moody said the department has put in 3,000 training hours at the Stevens Point training center since it opened in 2021.
“It’s crucial for training to be successful when the alarms come in,” Moody said.
What volunteer fire departments are saying is that they can no longer afford to go to Milwaukee or Chicago for the types of specialized trainings offered there, Moody said. Municipal budgets also are getting tight, so full-time fire departments are having trouble affording the costs of sending staff long distances for training. By building a regional central training center in the same location as the current local training center, trainers can be brought to central Wisconsin to offer training that would be more convenient for all of the departments in the Mid State area and in northern parts of the state.
The plan is for the new safety center to include a Stevens Point Fire Station 3. The guidelines call for firefighters to reach the site of a fire call within four minutes, Moody said. Currently, the Stevens Point Fire Department isn’t meeting that time limit for properties on the east side of Interstate 39, Moody said. The third fire station will allow the department to shift staff and equipment around to ensure equal coverage across the city.
There are 62 fire departments in the Mid-State Technical College service area, Mondeik said. All 62 departments have endorsed the plans for the centralized training center in Stevens Point, she said. Mid-State Technical College covers Adams, Portage and Wood counties and parts of Marathon, Clark, Waushara and Jackson counties.
Moody said he’s been involved with the Stevens Point Fire Department for 29 years and he doesn’t remember any time when all 62 fire chiefs agreed on anything.
What would the proposed training center include?
The center also will include a satellite police station with a break room, report room, bathroom and holding cells, Mondeik said. There also is an indoor shooting range planned. There is a joint decontamination area planned that will be near showers for firefighters and officers coming back from fires and other scenes where they are exposed to toxic chemicals. There is a planned workout room for everyone to use.
In the Mid-State-Technical College portion of the complex, there will be classrooms and a large public meeting room for training, Mondeik said. The planned name of the center is the Mid-State Nexus, Mondeik said. A nexus is a central connection link.
Outside, there will be an Emergency Vehicle Operations Course where firefighters and law enforcement officers can learn and practice driving skills. There will be outdoor areas for practicing for a wide range of things, including train derailments, hazardous materials responses, grain bin rescues, trench rescues and more. Buildings will make up a fake mini city for emergency services to practice responses. At the request of the Stevens Point Public Works Department, the “city” will include garbage cans and mailboxes so their employees can learn and practice garbage pickup and plowing skills.
The center also will offer Mid-State Technical College students valuable learning opportunities that will include getting to see an actual fire department in operation, Mondeik said.
Mid-State Technical College can contribute $1.5 million to the project, Mondeik said. She didn’t give an estimated cost of the public safety center but said the school has had a good track record of bringing together partners in the Mid-State communities to do other large projects in the past. Mondeik estimates it will take three years to raise the money for the public safety center.
The City Plan Commission gave initial approval of the conceptual plan and conditional use permit for the project.
Contact Karen Madden kmadden@usatodayco.com. Follow her on Twitter @KMadden715, Instagram @kmadden715 or Facebook at www.facebook.com/karen.madden.33.
This article originally appeared on Stevens Point Journal: Proposed MSTC safety center includes third Stevens Point fire station
Reporting by Karen Madden, Stevens Point Journal / Stevens Point Journal
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