News we've all been waiting for.  Centre County Emergency Services Training Site Ground Breaking to be held.

Appropriately enough on the fifth anniversary of 9/11 when so many emergency services personnel lost their lives in the attack on the World Trade Center in New York City, Centre County will see the ground breaking for its new emergency services training site on Harrison Road in Pleasant Gap, PA.  The ceremony will begin at 3:00 PM and the public is invited to attend.

Planning and negotiations for this facility have been in progress for the past ten years.  Even before that time Centre County fire and rescue personnel had no such facility after the closure of the old Alpha Fire Company training site on Penn State University Property.

For "live fire" training firefighters were forced to schedule sessions at the State Fire Academy in Lewistown or other locations outside of Centre County.  This resulted is personnel and apparatus being out of county and out of service for an entire day or weekend.

The first phase of the construction will include the site infrastructure and a residential style "burn building".  Later phases will include a multistory "tower" and classrooms.