Crest Hill — The Crest Hill City Council held a work session Monday to look at preliminary ideas for a new training facility for the Lockport Township Fire Protection District.

The new facility would be located on 13 acres of land next to Stateville Correctional Center, which was granted to the department in spring 2022.

Despite having six stations and covering an area of 46 square miles, the fire protection district does not have a permanent training facility, something Chief John O’Conner said the department has wanted for about 20 years.

“The property we have is ideal,” O’Conner said. “Being next to the prison, it’s undevelopable and was mostly used for agricultural purposes.”

Although there are not yet any solid architectural or construction plans, the department has a preliminary idea for what it would like to see at the site, which goes beyond training for fighting fires and includes facilities that could be shared with local police departments.

“We’ve been talking with the local police and the Tri-River Police Training academy, which provides continuing education for officers in Will, Grundy and Kankakee counties,” O’Conner said. “They currently operate out of Plainfield and share facilities with the Plainfield police, so that can get complicated scheduling classes.”

Along with proposed facilities that would enable fire protection district to conduct live fire training, the facility plans also include a four-story multipurpose structure made of repurposed shipping containers – or sea cans – by Lockport-based American Fire Training Systems, which firefighters and police could use to practice for a multitude of emergency situations.

There also would be a large pond for diving and water rescue training; a vehicle extrication area to simulate car crashes; and facilities to practice scenarios including forcible entry, K-9 search and rescue, hazmat drills and repelling.

Many of these drills are inaccessible to Lockport firefighters, who must “get creative” using abandoned buildings such as a disused convent for drills that do not include actual fire.

Police firing range

The proposed facility also includes an outdoor firing range for use by police, which has raised concerns about excessive noise from nearby residents.

Crest Hill already is home to two police gun ranges, one operated by the prison and the other by District 5 of the Illinois State Police.

As Crest Hill Mayor Raymond Soliman noted, the two existing ranges already create noise that can be heard by residents on a regular basis.

“I see both sides of it,” Soliman said. “I appreciate concerns neighbors have for the noise, but I also see how this would be a great training center. I’ve lived in Crest Hill my whole life, and I’ve heard the noise from the ranges. That’s something that’s been around for a long time.”

Several residents from the community came forward to speak at the Crest Hill City Council meeting Monday, expressing concerns about noise and questioning why a police training space should be included in a fire department facility when firefighters don’t carry guns.

“We are still in the very early stages of planning for this,” O’Conner said. “I understand there are some concerns about the gun noise, but everyone seems on board with the fire side of the facility. We’re going to talk to our architects and the construction manager about options for noise reduction.”

O’Conner said the gun range would be a joint venture on the property with Lockport police who, along with Romeoville and Crest Hill police, would have regular, free access to the facility for officer training, making the project a full public safety training facility.

The range also would be used by the fire district’s four arson investigators, who carry sidearms when going out on investigations and need to be recertified annually, as well as for occasional classes held by the Tri-River Police Training academy.

The Lockport Police Department had planned to build a gun range for its officers in recent years, but the property it planned to use “fell through,” O’Conner said.

Therefore, Lockport police would provide the earmarked funding to construct the gun range on the fire protection district’s property, and the rest of the project would be funded by loans.

“The responsibilities of public safety officers keep changing, and there is a lot of room on the property for expansion,” O’Conner said. “Our goal is to create a facility that could support public safety training 50 years into the future at no additional cost to the taxpayers.”

“We’re keeping an open mind,” Soliman said. “I am glad the fire department was able to hear the community’s concerns, and I also appreciate that more training and education for our police is a benefit to the community.

“We have to weigh the benefits against the concerns, and the plans could be altered before this advances to the plan commission or the City Council.”