ALBEMARLE — Stanly County is continuing to move forward with the site construction work for the North Carolina Emergency Training Center that is slated for completion later this year.
At the county commissioners meeting on Feb. 17, commissioners unanimously approved a budget amendment designating $3.25 million from the county’s general fund cash reserves for the expanded 911 center at the Stanly County Airport.
Prior to the vote, County Manager Andy Lucas explained that he needed to amend a contract with the developer to include updated financial information in order to start the next chapter of site development.
“The county has received the guaranteed maximum price for the site development of phase two of the NC Emergency Training Center from Barnhill Construction Company, which includes the county’s prorated share for the new 911 facility and warehouse facilities. Our portion will not exceed $3.25 million,” Lucas said.
The county manager explained that amount will pay for the grading for the prorated share of all stormwater infrastructure, on-site water and sewer installation; funding will also pay for ingress and egress access roads, curbs and gutters, sidewalks, and the paving of parking lot areas.
Additional project budget amendments will be required later to recognize loan proceeds and more general fund reserves to cover the cost of the project.
“This will get Barnhill started with all the site work,” Lucas added. “In the meantime, we’ll be going down the parallel path of working to figure out how much reserves, the grant money we got from the 911 Board, the grant money we got from the Office of Management Budget, and then what the balance is so that we can put an RFP (request for proposal) out to the bank so we can get financing to cover the rest of the facility.”
The training facility will be operated by the North Carolina Office of State Fire Marshal in partnership with the NC Air National Guard Fire Department and Stanly County.
Designed to provide firefighters and rescue members with specialized training, the expansion project is positioned to evolve into the most advanced emergency training ground in the country thanks to a state-of-the-art Aircraft Fire Fighting flight-crash simulator.
Swift water rescue, aircraft firefighting, urban search and rescue, hazmat, and fire investigation technician courses are among the training areas that the proposed facility will focus on.
The 911 center was originally established in 2017 and was given assistance four years later when former NC Gov. Roy Cooper signed a $28 million bipartisan state budget bill for the center.
The Stanly County Board of Commissioners is set to hold its next regular meeting on March 3 at 6 p.m. inside the Gene McIntyre Meeting Room at Stanly County Commons.