Bismarck Mayor John Warford and local emergency officials will meet with Gov. John Hoeven later this month to seek state funds for a regional fire and peace officer training center in Bismarck.

To get its start, the Bismarck-Mandan 911 Memorial Training Center obtained some $900,000 in federal seed money through Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D.

More money is needed to complete the project.

The 80-plus-acre site is located near the city's landfill,

The early federal funding was enough to create its master plan, and complete site work and an outdoor firing range for Phase I of the project. Warford said no state money has been planned for the center in the the next biennium.

Phase II work would involve building training facilities and classrooms for law officers and firefighters.

"Our vision is to have a multi-tactical simulation building complex that will be three or four stories high. We will be able to change its shape for mock fires," said Warford. Plans include a concrete or asphalt pad for tactical training,

Other features planned are a shoot house, an urban driving course, a police dog training field and an area to locate outdoor fire props.

Warford said he will ask Bismarck Police Chief Keith Witt, Bismarck Fire Chief Joel Boesflug, and officials from United Tribes Technical College to join him when meeting with the governor.

"We are going to try and get some more federal dollars, get some legislative dollars and some private dollars," Warford said.

Gauging by a master plan, Warford expects the center's total cost to be between $3 million and $5 million."

Warford said he did not have a set amount he would request from the governor for the center. "I don't know what's available," he said. "My job is to present the case for need. It's not just for Bismarck. It's a regional benefit," he said.

He said the governor may have ideas on what funding sources are available. He said no dollar amount has been requested formally. "Even though the governor came out with the budget, there is still enough time to make request for state funding."

"It's for police, firefighters, highway patrol, SWAT teams, bomb squads, canine squads," It's a broad-based training center for police, fire, law enforcement that would serve western North Dakota," said Warford.

He said its completion was funding-driven.

Warford said Bismarck State College is planning a firefighters training program, but that program is contingent upon the training center

"There are 84 North Dakotans who are getting their firefighting training in East Grand Forks," said Larry Skogen, president of BSC, during Tuesday's session of the Mayors Economic Development Advisory Group. "That's money from our state going into the Minnesota school system. We have the program on the books to conduct it, to deliver it, but without that facility, we can't do it,"Skogen related.

Warford said peace officers and firefighters from all over the state could come and rent it. "Once we get it going, it will generate and operate revenue," he said.

Warford believed the center would require minimum staff.

"It would help a new officer or firefighter. … The idea would be to have a lot of educational classes take place there as well.

"It will be a neat thing. There is a place for canines. to train. There is a place to detonate small bombs," he said.

While the city of Bismarck has provided no dollars of its own for the project, it has donated the property near the landfill to house it and will provide water and sewer. "Warford said he hoped there would be more funds allocated during the 2009 North Dakota legislative session.

He envisions the center as a chance for giving new firefighters more hands-on experience before they face an actual blaze.

"The first fire they put out is often the first fire they go to," he said.

The grounds also allow for more advanced training.

"We have a huge responsibility in Bismarck. Because of our location to the Capitol, we have to have a bomb squad that can practice," said Warford. He added it will give the West Dakota SWAT Team a place to train.

Efforts on the center started in 2004 and 2005. Warford said the center serves as a useful monument of the Sept. 11, 2001, attack.

"The vision is to have a training center with an incident building where they can conduct mock fires, take our SWAT Team and go in. You can change the configuration of the building, practice under darkness." Warford said.

(Reach reporter LeAnn Eckroth at 250-8264 or leann.eckroth@;bismarcktribune.com.)