AURORA | Aurora’s public safety officials want a new police and fire training facility, but city lawmakers aren’t sure if that’s the best way to spend $37 million in taxpayer money.
At an Aug. 26 meeting, city staff stressed the need for upgraded training facilities. Council members will decide whether to move forward with city staff’s recommendation to pay for the training facility at an Oct. 5 budget meeting.
The city’s fire and police departments have wanted a new training facility for years. Currently, training centers are spread throughout Aurora or located in other cities.
The police training facility at the edge of the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus is decades old, dilapidated, and even unsafe, said Officer Mark Finnin, president of the Aurora Police Association.
“We’re using buildings that are 70 years old; they’re former Fitzsimons barracks,” he said. “They’re getting us by, but we’re outgrowing them.”
Over the past three decades, the city’s police force has tripled, but the training academy has remained the same size, he said.
There are about 670 police officers in the city and 330 members of the Aurora Fire Department, all of whom need to go through periodic trainings and recertifications throughout the year. The city’s police firing range near Beck Recreation Center only has about 20 bays and sometimes officers have to wait an hour for an opening, Finnin said. The need for more public safety staff is only going to continue to grow, especially with the FasTracks light rail system set to open in 2016, he said.
“With the projected growth coming into the city over the next 10 years, we’re going to be hiring a lot more officers,” Finnin said. “(Council) needs to get moving.”
The Aurora Fire Department has a long list of needs as well, including a fire drill tower and a fire burn tower.
The need for a new police and fire training facility was identified as far back as 1999, according to city documents. But some council members aren’t yet sold on the idea.
If Aurora decides to pay for a new police and fire training facility, it would be the single largest capital project the city could afford within the next decade, said Councilman Bob LeGare. He said it’s important to consider paying for other capital projects for taxpayers, like a second recreation center.
“I’m not saying it’s not important, but if we do a $37 million project, it’s probably going to be the last big project we do for maybe the next 10 or 15 years,” LeGare said at the Aug. 26 meeting.
Councilwoman Molly Markert said there are many other competing interests in the city.
“At what point do we firmly decide this is our major building project for the city?” she said.
A few years ago, city officials tabled a proposal to build a $100 million public safety training facility with Denver. Aurora already spent about $150,000 for preliminary plans for that project, which was scuttled when the economy soured and both cities suffered budget deficits.
Now, city staff recommends the build-out of a $22.6 million training facility near the Arapahoe County Fairgrounds in the 2014 budget. The facility would include 31,000 square feet of education training classrooms, 19,000 square feet of vehicle training and 23,000 square feet of K-9 training, a burn building and a search and rescue training structure.
A new indoor firing range with a classroom training area would cost $14.5 million in addition to that.
Reach reporter Sara Castellanos at 720-449-9036 or sara@aurorasentinel.com.
Funny, I commented yesterday and listed other items I think would be of bigger benefit to the citizens.
Today, my post is gone. Wonder who does that or asks that it be pulled?
Thirty seven million dollars for a training facility should even be considered at this point.
I swear this city is all about appearance’s versus what is actually needed.
They over spent on the municipal building. They built a 72 hour hold that has yet to be filled and is twice the size of what’s needed.
Most of the cop car fleet is junk.
There are not enough cops to police this city and you want a pretty new building to train people who are already trained? You are barely hiring.
You’ve got to be joking. Does K-9 really require 23,000 square feet of training space? Come on!