EDITORIAL: Regional police and fire training facility is a capital idea

The way forward for Aurora isn’t easy, but it’s clear.

This week, police and fire officials asked city council to find a way to spend as much as $37 million on a new public safety training facility. Councilman Bob LeGare accurately noted that if the city were able to pull off such a feat — and it’s improbable that voters would approve such an expense — it would likely be Aurora’s only sizeable construction project for years and years to come.

We agree.

It would mean no recreation centers, no light-rail station parking, no conference center, no events or cultural arts center, no improvements to the dismal I-225 canal.

There has to be another way, and there is.

No one is disputing that Aurora police and fire departments are in sore need of better training facilities, but $37 million is over the top for a city that has fallen so far behind in providing taxpayers amenities for a better quality of life.

The key here is that Aurora is not alone in needing better facilities to train new officers and firefighters and offer continued training to existing staff. For the past several years Denver, Aurora and Broomfield tried to create a joint project that would save taxpayers in all jurisdictions serious cash. Since modern police and firefighting operations in Colorado are so closely aligned, such a common training facility is a natural and laudable goal, even if the political hurdles are high.

This is the very reason the Denver Regional Council of Governments was created. This and the Metro Mayor’s Task Force are prime venues to incubate efforts to create a facility that can serve much of the metro area and possibly even the entire state. In that vein, it’s in the state’s interest to help build such a facility, which could offer training beyond what’s offered at Camp George West, a statewide police training facility. Beyond that, the state’s community college system, which already offers many firefighting and law enforcement programs, should be brought in as partners for such a project. Much of the foundation of police and firefighter training is so universal that it’s easy to see how a technical college system would be able to effectively and efficiently be the hub of a regional training facility.

There’s no doubt that there would be considerable logistical and practical hurdles to overcome, but the cost and quality of creating such a center would be a compelling motivator to make it happen.

The other powerful reason to take this tact is the lack of money for capital projects directly benefiting all taxpayers. For decades, Aurora residents have ponied up to build a new city hall, new and then remodeled jail and court facilities, new schools, new water systems, new commercial infrastructure and new roads. For an entire generation, the city has forgone building recreation centers. Just a few years ago, Aurora was forced to close libraries just to keep the lights on in other departments. For almost two decades the city has talked about the wisdom of a conference center, and Aurora officials have made no secret of the fact that parking at coming light-rail stations will be woefully inadequate.

At what could easily be the top of the list, Aurora is behind communities like Lone Tree, Parker, Arvada, Littleton and even Lakewood in capturing regional arts dollars by creating places large enough to snag them. Aurora seriously needs a cultural arts center to provide a place for arts, music, dance and theater programs. Right now, the city’s largest venue is a high school auditorium.

City officials need to find a way to plan for and start building the amenities it needs. But as to police and fire training, it would be a missed opportunity for Aurora to go out on its own toward a project that so clearly works better as a regional facility.