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Disaster response training center could be a windfall
Planners hope to secure funds to rehab brownfield, create 'theme park' simulators for students.
> Related: Planners consider sites for 'Calamityville' facilty
Sunday, January 25, 2009
FAIRBORN — Fairborn and Greene County leaders say cleaning up a brownfield to turn it into a disaster training ground could create a tsunami of economic benefits.
Calamityville could attract thousands of medical first responders from around the country bringing spinoff dollars to the Miami Valley.
"What we're looking at is creating a disaster theme park," said Dr. Glenn Hamilton, one of the Wright State University medical school doctors developing the project, which could simulate all types of disasters.
The project already is promised $6 million in state and federal money for construction, but needs another $3 million in Clean Ohio Revitalization Funds to decontaminate the 53-acre former Cemex cement plant in Fairborn.
Hamilton said the college estimates an economic impact of nearly $400 million in five years.
More than 30 full-time jobs would be created and thousands of students would visit the area annually for training.
"Our business plan shows we hope to have a substantial economic impact," Hamilton said earlier this month to Greene County Commissioners, who all are behind the project.
Greene County Commissioner Rick Perales, who has secured Clean Ohio money for two projects at the University of Dayton — where he is development director — said he is confident.
"We are the number one project in our area," Perales said. "We have a vision many of these other people don't have in that we know what is going to go there."
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2342 or
cmagan@DaytonDailyNews.com.
