One can’t forget that when housing and retail expand, other aspects of a community, such as police enforcement, medical services and schools need to grow as well.
Since January 2006, Greg Popps, the president of the Central New York Regional Tactical Education Center, Barton & Loguidice, and Third Ward Councilor William Davern have been completing the plans for the first phase of a 50-acre site for a Central New York Regional Tactical Training center. This project would have at least two phases.
“Currently we are looking at two potential sites, but nothing is finalized yet,” Davern said. “The former fire control practice location was on five acres, but it burned down. We need 50 acres to complete the first phase of this project proposal though.”
The preliminary plans for this site, which has been layed out by B&L after inputs from the CNYRTEC board of directors, volunteer firemen and WAVES, was initiated by the town of Camillus public safety committee,and by local volunteer organizations, including the Fairmount, Camillus, Warners, Memphis, and Lakeside fire departments and the Camillus Police Department.
At many of the town meetings, as many as 20 county police, fire departments and a local business came to show an interest and give those involved very valuable inputs. All four county legislators representing Camillus districts attended some of these public safety meetings as well.
“Right now some of our training has to be done in other counties, so it will be great to have one location that we can do all of our training and practice at,” said Sgt. Dan Burlingame of the Camillus Police Department. “We will have the opportunity to train with local fire departments and the aviation unit. Logistically it will be convenient.”
The second phase of the project will require a 150 -acre site that will have inputs from all county organizations and would work with the guidance from the county public safety committee, Syracuse police department, the sheriffs department, SUNY-OCC and other emergency volunteer organizations.
The status, as of today, for Phase I of the CNYRTEC is as follows: the town of Camillus Attorney Dirk Oudemool is filing a 501-(c)3 for this non-profit organization and B&L has completed a conceptual drawing for the proposed location, which will have many training facilities on site.
The services include a preliminary emergency vehicle obstacle course (EVOC), rifle range for fire arms certification, a fire training site with a fire control practice structure and a flash over simulator, 150-foot-by-150-foot helicopter pad extraction practice area, training center and parking area.
