BELLEFONTE -- A third offer of land to the county's fire-training site committee, unveiled at its monthly meeting Thursday night, has fire officials moving further away from locating the $5 million facility along Paradise Road.
County Fire and Emergency Services Training Site Committee head Tim Schreffler stressed that the offer of 22 acres along Trout Road up to the fence line at the University Area Joint Authority plant was "so preliminary that it is very premature to say yea or nay."
Still, with this latest offer and the UAJA's original offering of 17 acres inside its fence along Spring Valley Road -- both of which could mean savings of "a high value" to the project -- Schreffler said momentum for getting a site built has increased.
The committee has been looking for ways to trim costs. Constructing the facility along Paradise Road would eat up $2 million -- virtually all the funds collected for the site -- in land development before a single building could be constructed.
Moving the site will not change the layout of the training site or any of the modules. If a new site is selected, Schreffler said, the plans will simply be "picked up and dropped on" the new ground.
Schreffler said the 22-acre site's availability, brokered with the assistance of project manager Frank Schwab, came after extensive discussions with UAJA's board and tours of the site.
When the firefighters and authority board members sat down, Schreffler said, UAJA had serious concerns about traffic and daylight burning activities.
Schreffler said both items were nonnegotiable. Firefighters and other emergency workers need the requested space for training purposes and the permit the site will have for live burns will run from 8 a.m. to 5 or 6 p.m.
Those discussions resulted in the training site's Executive Committee agreeing that the 17-acre site inside UAJA fence was "not a good fit," Schreffler said.
Also, as these land offers have rolled forward, Schreffler said it was becoming increasingly apparent the long-planned site along Paradise Road in Benner Township did not meet the long-term needs of the fire company.
Had this been the only option presented, Schreffler said, the company would have proceeded as planned.
"We're not looking at a new location because of Benner Township," added committee vice chairman Glenn "Butch" Dry. "But new cards have been thrown on the table. I wish they were there four years ago."
But with these other entities offering land "We have to look at reality," Schreffler said. "We won't have to put $2 million into land development. That's a benefit for us."
Project architect Robert Hoffman will now assess the new site and offer additional plans.
"It's a lot of land, (with) a lot of potential," he said.
Also on Thursday night, the committee announced it was extremely close to finalizing paperwork to attain nonprofit status.
By becoming a 501(c)3 organization, the fire committee is able to provide tax incentives to large corporations that may want to donate to the project, is not subject to paying the prevailing wage during construction and can accept services in exchange for favors, such as naming a street in the facility after the individual who volunteered to pave it.
Distributed by the Associated Press
