By Matt Youngfrau
ROCK HILL — May 3, 2002 – New York State Senator John Bonacic was in Rock Hill Monday morning to present Sullivan County with some good news.
During a visit to the Rock Hill Fire Department, Bonacic announced that the state would provide $250,000 to develop a Fire Training Facility in Sullivan County.
“Firefighters in Sullivan County need and deserve a training center,” Bonacic said. “This funding is designed to help create a state of the art training tower and move the entire training center project forward.”
“This fire training center will be the most important improvement in the last several decades for firefighters in Sullivan County,” said Fire Training Center Committee Spokesperson Richard Martinkovic. “It will ensure we can do our jobs in a safer and better trained way.”
The training center has been in the planning stages for about two years. In February, Sullivan County Legislature Chair Rusty Pomeroy, in his annual State of the County Address, promised county support for the project.
The proposed training center will be state-of-the-art. Besides the training facility, a three-story training tower will be erected. The tower will help train county firefighters for live-burn situations.
“This was great news for us,” stated Sullivan County Legislator Jonathan Rouis, who chairs the Legislature’s Public Safety Committee which will oversee the project. “The facility is necessary and important. This will jumpstart the project.”
The facility will be constructed in the Town of Bethel on old White Lake Turnpike near Route 55. Currently, the title of the property is being transferred from the town to the county. More funding from the state and federal governments is being sought. The plans are being finalized and construction may begin within a few months.