MONROE - The MERIT Center will move from concept to concrete in 2008.
Ambitious goals are on the board this year to construct a classroom and truck bays in April and to complete roads and water mains prior to the 2008 Fire School in August.
The MERIT (Monroe Emergency Response Inter-Agency Training) Center is being built almost entirely with private contributions, an estimated $600,000. Fundraising for the center will begin this month.
Federal and state funding programs are not expected to cover structural costs, but could help later with training classes and equipment costs.
The center, located on six acres in the Monroe Business and Industrial Park, is being presented as the "premier safety training facility in the Upper Midwest." Designed to provide training for emergency response and industrial safety personnel, it is expected to benefit police, firefighters and private industry in a five-county region.
A Volunteer Advisory Board - representatives from the Green County Fire Chiefs' Association, Green County Police Chiefs' Association, Green County EMS Commission, Blackhawk Technical College, the City of Monroe and private industry - is being assembled.
"The presidents of most of these organizations will appoint people," Monroe Fire Chief Daryl Rausch said.
Rausch, one of the originators of the MERIT concept, said about 80 letters are going out this week to seek potential corporate sponsors. Sponsorship requests to private industries were "matched up" with items that best fit the sponsors' interests. Training props include a roof, electrical, vehicle fire and extraction, a live burn tower, grain bin, tanks and a search and rescue building.
Rausch said he is looking for opportunities to present the MERIT Center and the new westside fire station project. He has presentations already scheduled with private clubs for Jan. 16 and 17 and a presentation open to the public scheduled for 1 p.m. Feb. 20 at the Senior Center.
Ambitious goals are on the board this year to construct a classroom and truck bays in April and to complete roads and water mains prior to the 2008 Fire School in August.
The MERIT (Monroe Emergency Response Inter-Agency Training) Center is being built almost entirely with private contributions, an estimated $600,000. Fundraising for the center will begin this month.
Federal and state funding programs are not expected to cover structural costs, but could help later with training classes and equipment costs.
The center, located on six acres in the Monroe Business and Industrial Park, is being presented as the "premier safety training facility in the Upper Midwest." Designed to provide training for emergency response and industrial safety personnel, it is expected to benefit police, firefighters and private industry in a five-county region.
A Volunteer Advisory Board - representatives from the Green County Fire Chiefs' Association, Green County Police Chiefs' Association, Green County EMS Commission, Blackhawk Technical College, the City of Monroe and private industry - is being assembled.
"The presidents of most of these organizations will appoint people," Monroe Fire Chief Daryl Rausch said.
Rausch, one of the originators of the MERIT concept, said about 80 letters are going out this week to seek potential corporate sponsors. Sponsorship requests to private industries were "matched up" with items that best fit the sponsors' interests. Training props include a roof, electrical, vehicle fire and extraction, a live burn tower, grain bin, tanks and a search and rescue building.
Rausch said he is looking for opportunities to present the MERIT Center and the new westside fire station project. He has presentations already scheduled with private clubs for Jan. 16 and 17 and a presentation open to the public scheduled for 1 p.m. Feb. 20 at the Senior Center.