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Posts Tagged Chicago announces plans for new training academy

Chicago Fire Department news (more)

Jun 28

Posted by Admin in Fire Department News | 2 Comments

Excerpts from nbcchicago.com:

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot says the proposed police and fire training facility that is opposed by activists is likely to cost more than previously estimated. She says as it’s currently designed, the projected $95 million facility is unlikely to meet the needs of first responders the police department and fire department, particularly firefighters. She doesn’t know what the ultimate costs will be, but she wants it to be the best-in-class training facility for first responders anywhere in the country.

Opponents contend the proposed facility is a waste of money that should go toward education, job training, and mental health services.

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Chicago Fire Department news (more)

Mar 16

Posted by Admin in Fire Department News | Comments off

Excerpts from nbchcicago.com:

In a dramatic and contentious meeting Wednesday, the Chicago City Council approved (38-8) a controversial plan to build a $95 million police and fire academy on the city’s West Side. City hall was crowded for hours with a large and raucous crowd of roughly 300 members of the public, mostly young activists opposed to the academy, and a police presence to match.

Proponents of the new state-of-the-art academy say it will better equip police to fight crime using 21st century tactics and technologies. But the academy’s opponents say it could further militarize the police force and that those millions of dollars should instead be used to reinvest in blighted communities.

The academy will be built on a vacant plot of land in West Garfield Park, located at 4301 W. Chicago Ave. Protestors in the upper viewing gallery could be heard chanting “Let us in!” through the early floor debate on the contract. 

Mayoral candidate Toni Preckwinkle said that as mayor, she “will not proceed with this project until we have a real conversation about public safety” and she commends the activists for speaking out.

Mayoral candidate Lori Lightfoot she doesn’t support the academy because communities weren’t consulted before drafting a proposal. She would support a bigger, more expensive facility that could attract all levels of law enforcement.

The city council awarded the building contract to multi-national engineering giant which has overseen a number of notable projects and who previously was forced to pay a $57.5 million settlement to the U.S. Department of Energy for using deficient materials in their building of a nuclear weapons facility in Washington, and a subsidiary was charged by federal prosecutors for fraudulently billing clients over 10 years.

 

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Chicago Fire Department news (more)

Feb 28

Posted by Admin in Fire Department News | 1 Comment

Excerpts from chicagoinfrastructure.org:

The Chicago Infrastructure Trust (CIT), in coordination with the City of Chicago and the Department of Fleet and Facility Management (2FM), is pleased to lead the Chicago Joint Public Safety Training Academy (JPSTA) Project procurement. Intended to consolidate and replace various Chicago Police Department and fire department training facilities to a new centralized campus, designed to provide all of Chicago’s first responders police officers, firefighters, and EMS personnel with modern facilities for learning and practicing the latest techniques in emergency response. The multi-stage CIT procurement is structured to identify highly qualified Design-Build teams with the requisite experience, capacity, and capabilities to work with the city to design and ultimately deliver the comprehensive training academy campus at 4301 W. Chicago Avenue.

The JPSTA Request for Qualifications (RFQ) was issued on October 11, 2017. Statement of Qualifications (SOQ) in response to the RFQ were received on November 20, 2017 (click here for list of respondents). On December 21, 2017 five RFQ Respondents were selected as eligible to respond to the JPSTA Request for Proposals (RFP). A list of the five JPSTA Shortlisted Respondents can be found here.

The JPSTA RFP was issued on May 31, 2018, soliciting proposals from five pre-qualified JPSTA Shortlisted Respondents. The JPSTA RFP is comprised of three volumes, which can be accessed through the links below and the documents tab of this webpage:

Volume I: Instructions to Respondents
Volume II: Contract Template
Volume III: JPSTA Reference Documents

thanks Dennis

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Chicago Fire Department news (more)

May 27

Posted by Admin in Fire Department News | 4 Comments

Excerpts from the ChicagoTribune.com:

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s plan to build a new, $95 million police and fire academy hit a speed bump this week when aldermen delayed approval of using $20 million from the sale of city-owned land for part of the cost of the academy. The city council was scheduled to reconvene Friday to vote on the proposal, although a lawsuit was filed Thursday to try to delay the vote. The academy has had vocal critics since it was first announced last year, but Wednesday’s delay was the first time they’ve slowed the plan’s progress.

News of the proposal followed a critical report from the U.S. Department of Justice about police department tactics, citing out-of-date training procedures for recruits at the police academy. The center would include indoor and outdoor training spaces as well as offer more joint training opportunities, the city has said. And the academy will be named for slain Cmdr. Paul Bauer, who was shot in the line of duty in February.

Emanuel and his supporters say the new public safety training center is a necessary replacement for separate police and fire academies, both more than 40 years old, so that up-to-date training can be offered in a modern facility. But it has also been viewed as a response to the spotlight on police misconduct.

At the same time, there have been too few investments on the West Side for far too long, supporters say. And the academy could help offset that inequity. The new campus is set to be built on 30 acres in West Garfield Park.

There’s been strong support for the training center among aldermen . An earlier purchase of land for the academy passed the council 48-1, approving paying $10 million for 30 acres of vacant land.

The lingering question is how the city will pay for the project. In addition to the $10 million for the land, Emanuel is planning to use $20 million from the sale of land near Goose Island — the subject of Friday’s scheduled vote — and an additonal $5 million from the sale of a River North firehouse. The mayor hopes to get at least $23 million from selling other police and fire training buildings. That means there’s still about $37 million needed.

Despite Emanuel’s plans for the academy, some Chicago cops think the mayor has turned his back on them. More than 100 off-duty officers marched at city hall during Wednesday’s council meeting and called for Emanuel’s removal from office. Some officers think the mayor’s endorsement of a federal consent decree overseeing police reform means he’s cast their interests aside. The mayor has also not yet agreed to a new contract — almost a year after the union’s last one expired.

thanks Dan

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Chicago Fire Department news (more)

Sep 25

Posted by Admin in Fire Department News | 5 Comments

Excerpts from dnainfo.com

Plans for a state-of-the-art $95 million training facility for Chicago police and fire recruits advanced Wednesday after winning the endorsement of a key city panel.

While the Chicago Plan Commission unanimously approved the plan to buy the 30-acre site at 4301 W. Chicago Ave. in Garfield Park for $9.6 million, a coalition of groups rallied outside the mayor’s office urging that the plan be shelved and the money spent on schools and community redevelopment efforts.

The People’s Response Team, which is part of the No Cop Academy effort, said the money would be better spent on restoring cuts made to Chicago Public Schools’ budgets or reopening mental health clinics closed by Emanuel.

About $20 million from the sale of the Goose Island Fleet and Facilities operations center will be used to buy the long-vacant land in the 37th Ward and start construction on the state-of-the-art facility. With the backing of Emanuel, the City Council is expected in October to finalize the sale of the North Branch property for $104.7 million to Sterling Bay.

The facility will replace the police training academy at 1300 W. Jackson Blvd., built in 1976; the fire prevention training facility at 1010 S. Clinton St., built in 1950; and the Fire Academy South at 1338 S. Clinton St., built in 1965, officials said.

In the next two years, Emanuel has promised to add 970 positions to the police department: 516 police officers, 200 detectives, 112 sergeants, 50 lieutenants and 92 field training officers. The department also plans to fill 500 vacant positions.

thanks Dennis 

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Chicago Fire Department news (more)

Aug 4

Posted by Admin in Fire Department News | 3 Comments

More on the new Chicago Public Safety Training Academy

Excerpts from wgntv.com:

A nearly $100 million state-of-the-art facility on the West Side will simulate real-world scenarios to train police officers and firefighters.

Leaders also believe the facility will bring an economic boost to the area. For years Ald. Emma Mitts says she’s been fighting for a piece of Chicago’s economic growth to be built her ward that includes west Garfield Park.

The $96 million Public Safety Training Academy for both police and firefighters will be built on 30 acres of land near 4301 W. Chicago Ave. It will be big enough to mock up a two-flat, CTA trains and buses, and classrooms to study the latest techniques.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel believes not only will the city’s personnel be better trained, but also Chicago will become the destination for training for departments from nearby states.

“So it will be a real economic development; people from the suburbs come train here down state come stay here for small fee; we will let people from Wisconsin, Indiana come train here,” Emanuel said.

The mayor also believes this will help in security on the West Side of Chicago because there will be hundreds of police officers coming in and out of there on a daily basis.

The facility is expected to be up and running by 2020.

thanks Dan

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Chicago Fire Department news (more)

Aug 2

Posted by Admin in Fire Department News | 1 Comment

Excerpts from chicago.cbslocal.com:

The $95 million public safety training campus ?in West Garfield Park that will replace Chicago’s police and fire training academies will be bankrolled in part by proceeds from the sale of the valuable fleet facility site near the Chicago River on the North Side.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel is fleshing out financing for the long-awaited West Side project after entering into a letter of intent to buy the 30.4-acre site at 4301 W. Chicago Ave.

A developer agreed earlier this year to pay the city $104.7 million — $133.53 per square foot — for the lucrative site near the Chicago River, where city vehicles now are maintained. The deal also requires Sterling Bay to build a new city maintenance facility in Englewood.

Now, city officials say the mayor is planning to use at least $20 million from the North Side sale to buy land for the new public safety training campus and get work started.

The remaining $75 million to build it is to come from the sale of other surplus property including the police and fire academies the new campus will replace.

Emanuel’s 2017 budget already assumes the use of proceeds from the sale of the West Town fleet site to finance a previously shelved, $31 million overhaul of Chicago’s 311 non-emergency system.

City Hall also released the first architectural renderings of the new training facility, which is expected to provide an economic boost to impoverished West Garfield Park. The campus is meant to improve training, which the Justice Department found lacking in its examination of the Chicago Police Department.

thanks Dennis and Dan

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Chicago Fire Department news (more)

Jul 31

Posted by Admin in Fire Department News | 13 Comments

Photos from a press event about the new public safety training campus in West Garfield Park  from the CFD Media Twitter

thanks Dennis

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Chicago Fire Department news

Jul 3

Posted by Admin in Fire Department News | 3 Comments

Excerpts from the ChicagoSunTimes.com:

Chicago’s police and fire academies will be replaced by a new $95 million public safety training campus in West Garfield Park. The shared training academy will have two buildings and outdoor training space, and will be built on 30.4 acres of vacant, privately owned land at 4301 W. Chicago. 

This will replace the 41-year-old police academy at 1300 W. Jackson, the 67-year-old fire academy at 1010 S. Clinton, and fire academy south at 1338 S. Clinton developed 52 years ago.

The main building will include classrooms, labs, simulators, conference rooms, an auditorium, and administrative offices. The second building will include a dive training pool, a shooting range, and space for active scenario training. The outdoor portion of the campus will feature a driving course, a skid pad, and space for hands-on practice in real-world situations.

Construction is expected to begin in 2018 and take 24 to 36 months. The cost, including land acquisition not yet completed, was pegged at $95 million. The mayor’s office refused to say how the project would be financed — only that the city would identify funding as the project progresses.

Emanuel’s $60 million, first-ever promise requires the Chicago Police Department to fill 471 vacancies, keep pace with rising retirements, and still hire enough police officers in 2017 to add 250 patrol officers, 37 sergeants, 50 lieutenants, 92 field-training officers, and 100 detectives. That ambitious hiring plan calls for classes of at least 100 recruits-apiece to enter the academy during eleven of the 12 months this year.

After a 13-month investigation, the Justice Department portrayed a biased Chicago Police Department that relies on 35-year-old training videos and uses outdated pursuit tactics that imperil suspects, officers, and innocent bystanders.

thanks Dennis

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