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City and NTC discuss a Wausau-area burn tower for firefighter training; staff to propose city-owned sites
Summary
Fire Chief Jeremy described a proposal with Northcentral Technical College (NTC) to build a training tower in or near Wausau; NTC has set aside capital funds for 2025–26 and asked the city to identify property. The committee requested staff compile three candidate city parcels and return next month.
Fire Chief Jeremy told the Infrastructure and Facilities Committee on March 13 that Northcentral Technical College has offered funding and equipment support to create a training facility—commonly called a burn tower—for firefighters closer to Wausau.
"Theyput aside some money in the capital for 25–26 to move forward with this," Fire Chief Jeremy said, describing NTC's commitment and the college's willingness to collaborate on a local site so departments would not need to travel to Merrill or Lincoln County for live-burn exercises.
Jeremy said the training tower would support live-burn training that the department cannot safely conduct at its three stations and that a local facility would help the department pursue additional points toward an Insurance Services Office (ISO) rating improvement. "Minimum if we're gonna just focus on ISO standards and give you points. They require 2 acres with a training tower on it at a minimum to get the points that you can earn from them," he said.
Committee members discussed site considerations and constraints. Jeremy said he had looked at several city-owned parcels: the police department storage property (which he estimated at more than 8 acres and described as "off the beaten path" but near the highway), the old incubator parcel on Cleveland Avenue, and an old VA clinic adjacent to Station 2 on 30 Second Avenue that has been for sale. He said a site behind the new water treatment plant was unsuitable because of underground wells.
Committee members did not take formal action on the item because it was placed on the agenda for discussion only. Instead, the committee asked the fire chief and staff to identify three city-owned properties that meet the departments minimum criteria and to bring those options back to the Infrastructure and Facilities Committee next month for further review.
Committee members said a local training tower could also support regional departments and potentially generate revenue if other departments paid a fee to use the facility. Jeremy described the project's current scope as starting modestly with a training tower and leaving room for future additions such as classrooms, restrooms and overnight accommodations for apprentices.
The committee recorded no formal vote on the burn-tower discussion; staff follow-up was the agreed direction.
