The creation of a fully operational fire and emergency services training site became Centre County's top priority Tuesday.
By unanimous resolution, the county's Board of Commissioners agreed to join with local and area legislators, the site's volunteer committee and the hundreds of volunteer first-responders to persuade Gov. Ed Rendell to give a $2 million grant to the project.
Board chairman Chris Exarchos said he cannot emphasize enough how important the training site is, not only to the county's future, but to the businesses, residents, volunteers and out-of-county companies that will benefit from it.
"The existing facilities throughout the state are difficult to get into," Exarchos said. "(The training site) will take the pressure off the existing facilities. It's not just a Centre County project. We are fortunate to have residents who volunteer millions and millions and millions of dollars worth of service ... We've got to give back for the millions of services they give to us."
Centre County needs about $5 million to replace the Penn State training site that was closed in 1997 due to contamination issues.
Commissioner Scott Conklin, while on the previous board, voted to give $1.8 million toward the site.
"I thought we'd have ground broken by the end of my first term," Conklin said. "I'd like to see the first responders out there by the end of this one."
Commissioner Steve Dershem said he was amazed at the patience of the firefighters and other individuals who have spent long, volunteer hours to make a county training site a reality.
Completing the project as soon as possible, Dershem said, is "critical."
"This is the basal unit of what we, as a government, should be doing," he said. "Everything else we do is fluff. This is saving lives."
