The Ceres City Council heard about plans last week of the city and the Modesto Fire Department, which provides fire protection services to the City of Ceres, to expand the training center at the Service Road fire station property with a four-story training tower.
The $1.2 million project would be funded from the cities of Ceres, Modesto and Turlock as well as Stanislaus County, Stanislaus Consolidated Fire Department, the Regional Fire Authority (RFA) and Modesto Junior College Regional Fire Training Center.
“This project we’ve been working on for a couple of years so it’s exciting to finally bring it back,” Modesto Fire Chief Kevin Wise told the council.
Ceres is expected to pay $400,000 toward the project. Others chipping in include the Regional Fire Authority (RFA) $325,000, Stanislaus County paying $325,000 and the Modesto Junior College Regional Fire Training Center chipping in $250,000.
In 2019 the city of Ceres formed a three-year Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with partners to create a new training facility on Service Road, along with training officers, to train firefighters from four different agencies: Ceres, Modesto, Salida and Stanislaus Consolidated. The Ceres City Council later contracted with Modesto for fire service. Later Turlock was added to a new five-year MOU.
The Service Road station wasn’t used after 2018 because of budget cuts so it was perfect for a training facility. Metal shipping containers donated by Salida and Modesto departments, were remodeled and installed so that firefighters may receive training for fires in structures, including ventilation, forceable entry and firefighter search and rescue tactics.
The 40-foot containers, called “props,” are designed to train for residential and commercial fires.
“Training is one of the most important things we can do in public safety,” said Chief Wise. “We use these props daily to enhance our training.”
Chief Wise said a modular training tower is durable, can be reconfigured to training needs, require minimal maintenance and can be fitted with interchangeable doors, windows and walls. It will have interior and exterior stairways.
“On any given day we can have a fire academy with up to 30 personnel and we can have the regular fire department personnel running through the training center,” Wise told the council. “I believe at one time last year we trained 150 firefighters one day at this facility.”
Wise said that Ceres and other cities have numerous multiple-family and commercial dwellings and are “target hazards for us with high life rescue.”
The facility allows firefighters to practice above ground hose stretching, and practicing taking hoses up staircases into units and rescue of victims trapped inside. Hook companies can also practice aerial attacks.
“On top of the fourth story container will be a repelling station for technical rescue operations,” said Wise.
Site improvements worth about $170,000 include site grading, placement of a reinforced concrete foundation, and installation of an additional fire hydrant.
The Ceres City Council budgeted $300,000 for the project in the 2021/22 fiscal budget and an additional $100,000 added in the current budget. The money is not coming out of the General Fund.
It’s unknown what amounts the cities of Modesto and Turlock will pay towards the project.
Ceres resident John Warren noted that Ceres was coughing up the most money and asked why the costs weren’t being spread out evenly among the seven involved agencies.
“We’re all aware that the city of Ceres owns that property and owns all the buildings there and that’s a large contribution … that’s several million dollars in real estate and infrastructure and to have us paying the largest share to begin with doesn’t seem quite fair,” said Warren. “At least everybody should pay the same amount.”
Wise said that to get the project approved, different funding sources needed to be identified and the partners were willing to chip in differing amounts. He also noted the training facility will be owned by the city of Ceres.
Councilman Daniel Martinez noted that the MJC fire training facility has a tower that is 27 years old and the new tower will allow “training to be more realistic.”
“We’ll also be able to say that the city of Ceres is producing the firefighters that are protecting the community and the county,” said Martinez. “We’ll get to enjoy the fact that firefighters moving forward graduating from these academies are coming from Ceres Fire Station. That’s something we can appreciate.”
City Engineer Kevin Waugh said the city is fortunate that the contractor, Machado & Sons Construction Inc., is willing to honor the old bid of $154,612from over a year ago.
“It’s unusual that a contractor will hold the bid for over a year,” Waugh said. “He really wants to work with us.”
