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Marietta moving forward on police and fire training center; funds from SPLOST and ARPA cited
Summary
City leaders say construction of a local police and fire training center is under way, funded through prior SPLOST proceeds and other capital sources; officials said the center will reduce the need to send personnel off‑site for training and could be used regionally under city supervision.
City officials updated the City Council at the Aug. 13 agenda review that construction work has begun on a combined training facility for the Marietta Police and Fire departments and that a series of funding sources — including prior SPLOST proceeds and other capital funds — were used to develop the site.
Chiefs and staff said the training center will allow both departments to conduct more local training, retain emergency response assets inside the city while exercises occur and offer training to outside agencies under the city’s supervision.
Chief Bean of the police department said the downtown evacuation and crowd‑movement predictive analysis undertaken by Georgia Tech will inform safety planning for large events on the square; police and fire staff also described ongoing earthmoving and the burn building and other training infrastructure already in place. Staff said initial site acquisition and early work came from 2016 property swaps and multiple SPLOST cycles.
Officials said the training tower and initial facilities were funded partly by SPLOST to acquire the site and by general capital funds to build training infrastructure. City staff noted additional SPLOST funding could be requested in the next SPLOST cycle to complete asphalt training yards and other needs for both departments.
Staff said the facility has already allowed the fire department to host regional training and that offering training to outside departments can also serve as a recruitment and revenue opportunity, although any outside use would be scheduled and supervised by Marietta staff.
Councilmembers praised parks and public safety staff for leveraging grants and internal work to stretch construction dollars. No ordinance or contract award was finalized at the agenda review; staff said formal contract actions and funding requests will be brought to the council for approval as needed.
