NESQUEHONING, Pa. — The Carbon County Sheriff's Office knows just how essential training is for their work, but it's been several years since they and other first responders have had their own facility to do so.
"All the local law enforcement would have to leave the county and go to where the training was, which is very costly," said Carbon County Sheriff Daniel Zeigler.
Construction for the new Carbon County training center is underway, and by the fall, police, fire, and EMS in the county won't have to travel far for training.
Carbon County Commissioner Wayne Nothstein is a volunteer fireman with the Lehighton Fire Department and a committee member for the training center.
"We talked about many different sites. It's right by the communication center, emergency management. A more secure area, etc. So it was an ideal site," said Nothstein.
The center will feature a four-story fire training structure built to simulate a variety of potential emergency scenarios.
It will also have bur- training areas and towers for high-angle rescues.
While it's not done yet, the first floor of the training facility will feature moveable walls. They'll allow police to configure different room layouts for different situations.
"We can cross-train with local EMS and fire crews," Sheriff Zeigler said. "In the society, we live in now – we know what happened in Texas yesterday – you see the multiple law enforcement responses that are required to handle that."
During a news conference at the site, members of the training center announced a fund set up to support operations of the facility.
"They'll help us pay the bills and the future operations of the facility," Commissioner Nothstein said. "Electricity, propane, propane props, the equipment we might need, or training props, things of that nature, maintenance, repairs."
The facility is expected to be completed by September.
To donate to the training center, click here, or call the Carbon County Community Foundation at 1-855-545-1311.
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