There is much to be said around the country these days regarding all the ups and downs we’ve all experienced during 2008, in fact scuttlebutt has it that we’d better hang on to our hats, hunker down and hang on as we get ready to ride out 2009. To read more about election trends in 2009 go to “Voter Bond Support Remains Strong”. The good news here at the Interact Business Group (IBG) is that 2008 was a very good year, and we’d like to share our success stories with you!
January 2008, Four New Public Safety Training Centers Underway! and peruse a synopsis of each of the following training centers: (1) Luzerne Community College, Pennsylvania; (2) Contra Costa County, California; (3) Vacaville, California; and (4) Portland, Oregon-each unique with specific needs.
February 2008, IBG President Bill Booth was Selected to Join the New York Police Department Training Center Value Engineering Team in a series of workshops for their newly proposed consolidated training center to be built in College Point, Queens, to replace the inadequate Manhattan facility that opened in 1964. Study the key points experts reviewed for the project.
March 2008, A Working Partnership IBG’s President Bill Booth discusses three hot topics about different approaches to a training center’s success. For example, were you aware that more and more agencies are partnering with Community Colleges in order to realize their training center needs? This article presents three approaches that are currently being used today between agencies and community colleges to manage and administrate public safety training facilities:
• College Ownership, such as In Fort Worth, Texas where the Tarrant County College District owns and operates the training facility
• Public Agencies Facilities, an example being a community college that is affiliated with an existing law enforcement or fire skills training center, such as the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Office which runs the county-owned public safety training center.
• A Combined Approach, a third approach pairs the agency and the college in a dual-management role, as represented by the Regional Public Safety Training Center in Washoe County, Nevada, which is owned by the county.
May 2008, Relive the vision of Martha Chapman and her family (who lost 12 family members in a violent natural gas pipeline explosion in New Mexico) in A Dream is Born. The disaster resulted in the Permian Basin Regional Training Center, which provides first responders the education, skills, and hands-on training they will need to meet future catastrophes, like the Chapman family encountered, head-on.
July 2008, Experience the excitement at the ribbon-cutting dedication of Phase One of the training institute. Read the Crown Jewel Becomes Reality for New Public Safety Training Center at Luzerne County Community College, Pennsylvania.
September 2008, Phase 1 of the Kalamazoo Regional Police and Fire Training Center which was dedicated August 28, 2008. In 2001, the year of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on American soil, the City and County of Kalamazoo, City of Portage, City of Oshtemo, Kalamazoo Township, Western Michigan University, and the Kalamazoo Community College came together to investigate the need, potential location and cost to build and operate a regional public-safety training academy, along with the help of the Interact Business Group. See their mission accomplished in our article, Protecting the Homeland. November 2008, Walk with the thousands who attended the 27th Annual National Fallen Firefighters Memorial Weekend, October 3-5, 2008 in Emmitsburg, Maryland. This was held to honor and commemorate the sacrifice of firefighters who lost their lives while working in the line of duty. See our article Firefighters-Fallen but Not Forgotten. But don’t stop there. Discover recent vital statistics of firefighter deaths, and what the Interact Business Group has been doing to improve training and decrease firefighter in-the-line-of-duty deaths this past year.
We cannot predict what 2009 holds, but the Interact Business Group is ready and prepared to once again serve in the development of your public safety training center-from the smallest community project to the largest metropolitan complex. We have the experience! We have the incentive! And we’re here to serve you. 2008 has been a very good year! Let us help you make 2009 an even better, safer, Happy New Year.