WEBVTT 00:00:37.730 --> 00:00:43.936 - Good morning. We'll get started at 10 o'clock or right at it. So we'll get going. I just want to say 00:00:43.936 --> 00:00:50.204 - thank you for coming. This is an exciting day for our department. The chance to open up this building 00:00:50.204 --> 00:00:56.533 - that we've got here that has been a long time coming and pretty excited just to have the chance to get 00:00:56.533 --> 00:01:02.862 - all of our stuff and all of our equipment under one roof. And so it's pretty neat. I want to thank the 00:01:02.862 --> 00:01:07.102 - mayor. She gave us this opportunity about three and a half years ago 00:01:07.394 --> 00:01:14.637 - spend this uh bond money to get where we're at today and we're pretty we want to thank her we'll thank 00:01:14.637 --> 00:01:22.162 - the council for their support Weddle Brothers who have been the contractors on all three of these projects 00:01:22.162 --> 00:01:29.335 - uh Martin Riley who has designed them done a great job uh Chief Litwin who has been the driving force 00:01:29.335 --> 00:01:34.750 - on our side as far as keeping track of the funding and work over Chief Zeeks 00:01:35.458 --> 00:01:41.668 - Tiny Chief Drescher, Captain Hinkel, and Captain Blackwell, who've been instrumental in getting this 00:01:41.668 --> 00:01:47.940 - building up and running. And I can say it's pretty exciting where we're at. This is kind of the final 00:01:47.940 --> 00:01:54.151 - project of four. Started off with the remodel of station one, and then the remodel of station three, 00:01:54.151 --> 00:02:00.361 - and then us moving to Showers West. And so this is the conclusion of all those projects, culminating 00:02:00.361 --> 00:02:05.342 - in this building opening up today. So with that, I'll turn it over to the mayor. 00:02:05.634 --> 00:02:15.425 - Thank you. It's a big day for public safety in Bloomington and a great moment for the city. I want to 00:02:15.425 --> 00:02:25.119 - start by acknowledging something that doesn't always get acknowledged and we don't always get to say 00:02:25.119 --> 00:02:35.102 - in city government. This project was done on time and in local government that is sometimes remarkable. 00:02:36.802 --> 00:02:47.614 - It's a big, big deal. And when we talk about public safety, we frequently think about the moment that 00:02:47.614 --> 00:02:58.426 - we each call 911. And we don't always see the moments that come before that, that allow our people to 00:02:58.426 --> 00:03:06.270 - be ready to respond to that call. The training, the preparation, adequate 00:03:06.434 --> 00:03:15.909 - countless hours that make those moments of response possible. Last year alone, our firefighters logged 00:03:15.909 --> 00:03:25.383 - more than 48,000 hours of training. That's an extraordinary commitment to being ready when Bloomington 00:03:25.383 --> 00:03:33.662 - needs them. And that commitment deserves facilities that support it. Just as importantly, 00:03:43.874 --> 00:03:51.246 - And because our firefighters show up for Bloomington every day, our responsibility as a city is to show 00:03:51.246 --> 00:03:52.734 - up for them as well. 00:04:18.338 --> 00:04:24.254 - Chief of Police who is here, your turn is next. 00:05:02.626 --> 00:05:08.081 - and I'm so sad that I had to go after the mayor because it's a hard act to follow but I want to say 00:05:08.081 --> 00:05:13.864 - a couple of things before I got to be on the City Council I had the honor of serving on the Public Safety 00:05:13.864 --> 00:05:19.319 - Board for several years and if any of you ever been to the Public Safety Board you know that really 00:05:19.319 --> 00:05:24.938 - it's just the board where we listen to commendations about how great our firefighters are right to the 00:05:24.938 --> 00:05:28.702 - extent that one time I had to submit a commendation just so that the 00:05:28.802 --> 00:05:36.606 - least could get a pat on the back too because you know every day it was commendation after commendation 00:05:36.606 --> 00:05:44.636 - after commendation after commendation to be clear we have the best fire department in the state of Indiana 00:05:44.636 --> 00:05:52.515 - and it is because of all of you the service that you do that is not an overstatement but I'm so grateful 00:05:52.515 --> 00:05:57.918 - for the leadership of this city this administration thank you mayor and 00:05:58.146 --> 00:06:04.151 - Thank you, Deputy Mayor Gretchen Knapp. Thank you also to the incredible leaders of your union who have 00:06:04.151 --> 00:06:10.388 - fought now for several years. I mean, beyond just the funding that happened to make sure that this actually 00:06:10.388 --> 00:06:16.278 - happened. And we talked about it happening on time. It's because we all work together to get it there 00:06:16.278 --> 00:06:22.110 - on time. So I'm so grateful also to my incredible colleagues on the city council. Thank you so much. 00:06:22.110 --> 00:06:24.766 - When we work in unison, anything is possible. 00:06:25.090 --> 00:06:30.634 - And I'll say, adding to what the mayor said, as though it is hard to do, that now our focus must also 00:06:30.634 --> 00:06:36.232 - be on ensuring not only that you're the best prepared, but also that you have the best quality of life 00:06:36.232 --> 00:06:41.885 - while serving this city. Because you do so much for each and every one of us in ways that we don't even 00:06:41.885 --> 00:06:47.538 - have to think about it, right? The reality is that a good fire department means that we're not thinking 00:06:47.538 --> 00:06:51.614 - about it a whole lot because you're all doing your jobs in silent service. 00:06:51.778 --> 00:06:57.526 - But we also want to make sure then that on the day-to-day basis that you are working and serving this 00:06:57.526 --> 00:07:03.218 - community and one another, that we're able to support you in every way, shape, and form. And so just 00:07:03.218 --> 00:07:09.023 - again, so grateful to be here for the opening of this magnificent facility. Thank you, Chief Kerr, for 00:07:09.023 --> 00:07:15.166 - your leadership. Thank you all for being here. And we look forward to the next one, Chief DeKalb. Thank you. 00:07:21.186 --> 00:07:28.437 - as we like for the firefighters who are here to come up and line up on both sides and grab the hose, 00:07:28.437 --> 00:07:35.832 - along with the council members that are here, join in. The mayor and council member Sari will uncouple 00:07:35.832 --> 00:07:39.422 - the hose so that we can go into our new building. 00:07:49.090 --> 00:08:05.054 - Alright, ready? Alright, ready? Go ahead. 00:08:29.602 --> 00:08:34.800 - One great thing is if you have somebody come here to work on it, they can come here and we don't have 00:08:34.800 --> 00:08:40.101 - to build this up. They can come here, tear them apart in our own bay and not have to be working outside 00:08:40.101 --> 00:08:45.299 - in whatever way. So it makes a huge difference. Our ladder truck will fit in here. We'll have a spare 00:08:45.299 --> 00:08:50.497 - ladder truck once we get one. We just proved that tonight. So now that we have it, we'll have a spare 00:08:50.497 --> 00:08:55.798 - that will come in here as well. So this is a huge improvement over what we had. When you step this way, 00:08:55.798 --> 00:08:58.142 - if you see down here, we talked about cancer. 00:08:59.394 --> 00:09:01.374 - We have beer extractors on that end. 00:09:46.082 --> 00:09:52.816 - And so as the crews have stuff during the night or on weekends when nobody's here, they can come down 00:09:52.816 --> 00:09:59.550 - into the building, go inside and restock what they need on their streets and then go back to service. 00:09:59.550 --> 00:10:06.217 - This is just a work room. We do our own SCBA and gas detector repairs here. And so they have a place 00:10:06.217 --> 00:10:08.990 - where they can now repair all this stuff. 00:10:13.346 --> 00:10:17.718 - So as you come in here, some of the exciting parts is we actually have now what we're going to call 00:10:17.718 --> 00:10:22.266 - a recruit room. So that they can, uh, we can, when we have new recruits and we've been doing this joint 00:10:22.266 --> 00:10:26.813 - academy, uh, with Monroe fire. So they can actually have, once they get started, they can set all their 00:10:26.813 --> 00:10:31.360 - stuff up and we don't have to bother them as we continue to do training for the rest of the department. 00:10:31.360 --> 00:10:35.951 - You'll see when you do the rest, if you walk through, there's a door that goes out into the bay. They're 00:10:35.951 --> 00:10:40.455 - actually going to have a dedicated engine. And since we're so close to our tower, we can actually talk 00:10:40.455 --> 00:10:41.854 - about it in the classroom here. 00:10:42.306 --> 00:10:47.150 - They can go out and get on the engine, drive right down to the tower, and be able to train on what they've 00:10:47.150 --> 00:10:51.676 - just talked about without having to shuttle in bands across town. Behind you in the dark area where 00:10:51.676 --> 00:10:56.293 - the light will come on is a huge locker room with showers and all that stuff where they can work out, 00:10:56.293 --> 00:11:00.458 - change clothes, and shower afterwards. And so the individuals that work down here are still 00:11:00.458 --> 00:11:05.121 - sworn firefighters, and part of their is they have to work out an hour a day to meet our standard. And 00:11:05.121 --> 00:11:09.919 - so this gives them an opportunity to still do that and not have to leave here to go to different stations 00:11:09.919 --> 00:11:10.462 - to do that. 00:11:11.554 --> 00:11:16.787 - We do have a full kitchen. And then we come this way. We can go in there. We'll just make a circle. 00:11:16.787 --> 00:11:22.021 - This is the main classroom for all our department as we go ahead and train in here. But what I want 00:11:22.021 --> 00:11:27.307 - to point out, as we built it, thinking about what happened at station one with the flood and then we 00:11:27.307 --> 00:11:32.645 - had to find a building, we actually built four dorm rooms in here. So if something happens to another 00:11:32.645 --> 00:11:37.983 - station, we can actually bring a crew down here and they have a living facility. They can operate out 00:11:37.983 --> 00:11:39.710 - of this station in an emergency. 00:11:39.970 --> 00:11:47.440 - Before we have a building, there's a wall in the middle, we can divide this off and have two separate 00:11:47.440 --> 00:11:55.056 - classrooms. The classroom we have was just big enough we could get about a half a shift in. So it makes 00:11:55.056 --> 00:11:58.718 - it pretty nice to be able to get away every time.