Senate approves $500,000 grant to support North Dakota Firefighters Association building purchase

Senators passed Senate Bill 22-18 to appropriate $500,000 as a grant to the North Dakota Firefighters Association to serve as a down payment toward purchasing a new building and to support a capital campaign for a larger training and equipment facility.

Senator Dwyer, sponsor, described the association as a 501(c)(3) that provides statewide firefighter certification and mobile training for local departments. He said the association’s operating headquarters is a 9,600-square-foot building and that the owner offered an 8,600-square-foot building (plus adjoining land) for purchase priced at $1,900,000. The association seeks the $500,000 down payment to secure financing and proceed with a capital campaign intended to raise roughly $6,000,000 to build an additional 15,000-square-foot training/storage facility and renovate the purchased building.

Dwyer said the association also receives $1,200,000 annually from the North Dakota insurance reserve fund derived from premium taxes, and that this funding request would be a single state contribution intended to support long-term statewide firefighter training capacity. The bill passed 47 ayes, 0 nays, 0 absent; the transcript records that the emergency clause "carries."

Why it matters: the grant is intended to secure a permanent facility for statewide firefighter training and equipment storage, which proponents said will support volunteer and career departments across North Dakota and improve long-term training capacity.

Next steps: the association proceeds with financing upon receipt of the down payment; further capital campaign fundraising and facility design/renovation would follow per the association’s plan. The appropriation was passed with an emergency clause and will take effect immediately upon enactment.