Emergency vehicle proposal goes to college’s board for consideration
By Jennifer Eisenbart
Editor
With a solid foothold already in the City of Burlington, Gateway Technical College could be looking at making more inroads to the city.
Gateway officially announced Tuesday that it would like to locate a proposed Emergency Vehicle Operation and Control (EVOC) training course on the ChocolateFest grounds in Burlington.
Gateway would sublease the ChocolateFest grounds and make permanent improvements to the site, but would not use the land during the festival or other community events on the grounds. A public safety training center is also being considered for Burlington.
The Gateway board will hear the proposal this morning.
Gateway Vice President Bill Whyte said that it made sense for the training area to come to Burlington, as it is at the center of Gateway’s service area.
Whyte added that there are many people who need the training every year, and keeping the process local will help keep costs down for departments doing the training.
“It also has to have an infrastructure that supports (the training),” Whyte added, saying that Burlington has the hotels and restaurants to support those coming in to train.
“And we’re already there,” he said.
After the Gateway referendum was rejected by voters in April, Whyte said further options were then considered, specifically scaling down the size of the project.
Whyte said The Scherrer Group, a Burlington-based development company, was selected to put together a list of possibilities, which turned out to have 10 different spots for consideration.
As it turned out, Burlington happened to work. Whyte indicated that Gateway had been looking at Kmart as a possible site for the public safety building, but hadn’t considered the ChocolateFest grounds.
“We needed to combine those two facilities in our plan,” Whyte said. “We already have the HERO Center in Burlington. We have the campus in Burlington.
“But we never thought about the ChocolateFest facility at that point.”
Now the site looks perfect. Leslie Scherrer of The Scherrer Group said Tuesday that the site definitely has enough land for the track, but isn’t sure how the track would be laid out.
“We’ve done some preliminary analysis, which suggests that there is (enough space),” Scherrer explained. “It would take up a good portion of the larger parcel.”
There are two lots left of the ChocolateFest land, which was subdivided when the old Department of Public Works building was prepared for sale. Lot 1 is owned by O’Reilly Auto Parts, but Mayor Bob Miller said Tuesday he wasn’t sure of the status of that project.
However, the larger of the two remaining lots would work, Scherrer explained.
“We don’t know exactly where it is going to be on the site, or the configuration, but we do believe the site is sized for this,” she said.
Miller said, having had prior experience with EVOC training courses, that one in Burlington would be a “good fit.”
“It brings another training program into the city, which would then bring other law enforcement agencies into the city, which would bring in more business,” he explained.
Miller also reiterated what Tuesday’s Gateway-issued press release stressed – that there would be limited added noise because of the training grounds.
“They are exaggerated turns,” Miller said of the course. “The speeds are not there. It’s low-speed, but the turns are all exaggerated. It makes it seem like you’re taking the turns at a much higher speed than you are.”
Gateway added in the press release that sirens would not be used, except on the final day of training and only for short durations.
Whyte said that Gateway would fund the renovations for the facility, but in the 2014 fiscal year. He also said corporations have donated money in the past, and that could be another source.
“None would have to come from the City of Burlington,” Whyte said.
Burlington Area School District owns Gateway’s two buildings currently in the city, but Gateway leases them, essentially paying for the improvements that were made – and the loans the district took out to fund work.
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