The Cherokee County Board of Commissioners in November approved the purchase of the former Pike Nursery property on Highway 5. The price tag for the 14.29 acres was $850,000.
"We need it for our (Insurance Services Office) rating," Chief Ray Gunnin said about the new training facility. "The last time we were rated, if we had that facility, we could have scored lower."
The Insurance Services Rating is used to rate how well fire departments are serving their area. The scale runs from one to 10, with one being the best fire service and 10 being the least desirable. The ratings are used to calculate homeowners' insurance costs.
Eddie Robinson, Cherokee Fire-ES division chief of training, said the first objective for the facility is to hire an architect to develop a master site plan.
He said the facility will be phased in over a few years with the initial portion being an administrative building with classrooms and an emergency management services laboratory.
The facility ultimately will include a burn building, a multi-floor training tower, an outdoor classroom, a driving course and a rescue pad.
"We want to build an aesthetically pleasing facility," Robinson said. "We want to make it as environmentally friendly as possible within reasonable costs."
He said there is no cost estimate for the project right now, adding the facility will be offered for use by other fire departments.
"It will increase our ability to train in a more realistic fashion and also reduce the amount of travel," Robinson said, adding that firefighters currently travel to a training center in Forsyth.
The agency has also started another paramedic class, which will add 25 more paramedics to the department.
Gunnin said this class, which should be done in the fall, would make one-third of the department trained paramedics.
Among the accomplishments for 2009 Gunnin cited was the opening in February of a new logistics warehouse, allowing the department to have a more centrally located facility for supplies.
The 30,000-square-foot warehouse on Univeter Road near Canton was purchased by the county government for $1.5 million, according to Gunnin.
It supplies all of the county's fire stations with living supplies, uniforms and medical supplies. The building also has an office for Cherokee Area Transportation System and a room for storage of county records.
"The old facility we had was an old station in Holbrook," Gunnin said. "We were cramped in one corner of the county. Now, it is centrally located."
Gunnin said another achievement from 2009 was adding a ladder truck, which he said has served the agency very well during the times it has been called into service.
He said the department last year also began working on upgrading the department's radio system and added thermal imaging cameras at each station.
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