To Protect and Serve...Drive to Survive!

To Protect and Serve...Drive to Survive!
Train as if your life depended on it! It does!

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Fast Forward to 2010

As we head into 2010, the last several months have produced many things, to include a strong focus on a new development for EVOC.

A bit of history might be helpful for those of you not familiar with the San Diego Regional Public Safety Training Institute, our mission and how we are associated with the NTC Camp Nimitz Liberty Station site.

NTC - CAMP NIMITZ SITE – 24.7 acres located adjacent to the San Diego International Airport on N. Harbor Drive and McCain Boulevard. Nationwide military base closings made this site available and a June 1995 proposal was presented to the NTC Reuse Planning Committee. The SD City Council adopted a final Reuse Plan in 1998, the U.S. Navy approved it in 1999 and the property transferred to the City of San Diego in 2000.

JOINT POWERS AUTHORITY (JPA) – The San Diego Police and Fire Rescue Departments, the San Diego County Sheriff's Department and the San Diego Community College District-Miramar College formed the JPA on May 15, 2000, to oversee development of a new training facility to be named the SAN DIEGO REGIONAL PUBLIC SAFETY TRAINING INSTITUTE (SDRPSTI). The JPA recently negotiated a 66 year lease with the City of SD for this site.

In 2009, the JPA hired Interact Business Group (IBG) of Valley Center to research and evaluate training delivery options and ultimately deliver a Strategic Business Plan for this site. A finalized report is pending presentation to the JPA’s Board of Directors on February 11, 2010.

THE VISION - The recommendations in the IBG Report include designing and using a major portion of the site to build an Emergency Vehicle Operations Center (EVOC) for public safety driver training. The EVOC will eventually occupy about 14 acres of the site with the remaining area designated for Fire, Lifeguard and Rescue training. The report identifies 9 critical action items the JPA team will need to accomplish to meet our goal of delivering quality public safety training.

PROJECTED COSTS
– The IBG Report estimates demolition and construction costs for the EVOC at about $12-13m. Based upon several meetings with the JPA Project Team, site surveys and extensive research with stakeholders and end users, IBG believes the EVOC can produce a positive revenue generating fund which will sustain operations and maintenance of the facility with a positive cash flow of up to $49,000 per year. Many variables exist, including commercial and corporate vehicle training options that could enhance revenue generation beyond this estimate.

BUILDING FUND SOURCE – The San Diego Community College District has an existing $30M Bond Fund to help support the PSTI and our Strategic Business Plan for NTC. They are committed to building an EVOC however many details still need to be worked out to equally balance the financial impact of building and maintaining such a facility. It will truly be a team effort amongst the JPA member agencies to make this happen!

It is getting exciting for everyone! We've been waiting for many years to design and build an EVOC in San Diego County that will provide an excellent level of public safety driver training that will keep our emergency vehicle operators safe as well as the communities we serve.

More to come as we push through many meetings in the next few weeks!