Crisco, Gentile Welcome Funds For New Home of Naugatuck Valley Regional Fire Training School
July 14, 2010 – (RealEstateRama) — State Senator Joseph J. Crisco, Jr. (D-Woodbridge), and state Representative Linda Gentile (D-Ansonia) today announced final approval for significant state funding to help secure property that will become the future home of the (Naugatuck) Valley Regional Fire Training School. The lawmakers said a total of $950,000 is now available to purchase property in Beacon Falls for the project.
The initiative was included on the agenda considered and acted upon by the State Bond Commission at its meeting held earlier today in the Legislative Office Building. The bond allocation was approved at that time.
“I’m delighted to report there is no need to wait any longer for these funds—we’re now taking the first concrete steps toward a new, permanent home for the Valley Regional Fire Training School,” Senator Crisco said. “No one is more sensitive to the state’s precarious fiscal condition than I am, yet this investment in public safety preparedness will pay for itself in terms of readiness for fire departments throughout the region, and in terms of a recruitment tool for future firefighters.”
“For the past nine years, since the fire training school on Sullivan’s Island in Derby was closed, firefighters from throughout the area have been required to keep current with emerging firefighting techniques by traveling statewide for the necessary instruction and training,” said Charles M. Stankye, Jr., the Deputy Fire Marshall of the Derby Fire Department and Treasurer of the Valley Regional Fire Training School. “Towns throughout the lower Naugatuck Valley will benefit from a new facility in terms of increased public safety for residents and property owners and improved preparedness for firefighters—now at least we’ll have a place to build one.”
Nine area towns—Ansonia, Seymour, Shelton, Derby, Orange, Woodbridge, Oxford, Beacon Falls, and Bethany—will eventually send firefighters to the Valley Regional Fire Training School on the property to be purchased using today’s state funding.
“I am delighted this facility, which has been promised for a very long time, has finally been allocated the necessary funding,” Rep. Gentile said. “The brave men and women will benefit from proper training as will the population they protect.”
Senator Crisco said approval for this bonding follows his successful effort to preserve funding in the state budget for a program to reimburse towns for volunteer firefighter training and certification, in which the state reimburses towns for one-half the cost incurred when volunteers complete Fire Fighter 1 certification and Recruit Firefighter training.
Press Aide
Laurence Grotheer
860-240-8820
Laurence.Grotheer (at) cga.ct (dot) gov
