City of Weatherford

PROJECT PURPOSE

The need for community emergency services has increased while the available trained personnel has decreased. The City of Weatherford First Responder Training Program mission is to provide our citizens and our surrounding communities with the most professional and efficient law enforcement, fire and emergency medical services available. The success of our mission is contingent on education, prevention, innovation, commitment and compassion. Weatherford is centrally located in Western Oklahoma and is one of three medium size cities along the I-40 corridor. Weatherford has become a training source for many of the first response agencies in our region. Weatherford along with our regional partners depend on sales tax revenue to operate. The economy in Western Oklahoma is primarily driven by the energy industry. The majority of all first response agencies are non-revenue generating entity?s; it is obviously becoming more and more difficult to obtain those tax dollars. The City of Weatherford was already in a limited capital expenditure situation when Covid hit, but it created yet another decline in tax revenue. In an effort to continue our training mission Weatherford has developed a partnership with its neighboring departments to create a regional training facility that is centrally located.

EVIDENCE

In the Central West region of Oklahoma there are lack of trained first responders. The national projections over a decade are needing to increase to 7-10%. This facility would be meeting those needs and filling those gaps. ? The References of shortage of first responders in Oklahoma www.bls.gov www.koco.com www.newson6.com

POPULATION DESCRIPTION

Western Oklahoma is a rural area with many small communities. The population is around 540,179 from the 2020 Census. Most first response agencies are comprised of majority volunteer staff. These agencies rely on sales tax dollars to operate. Agriculture and the energy industry generate the majority of those tax dollars. Unfortunately both sectors have declined as a result of the Covid pandemic. Grant funding will assist in improving the safety and effectiveness of first responders as a whole in western Oklahoma. By providing training to numerous departments with varying skill levels of personnel, at little to no cost to responders, each department will enhance effectiveness in achieving their mission. This facility will enable all partner departments to ensure that all staff is trained to the highest level to include any prerequisite training and be compliant with state and federal regulations. By providing all training locally at little to no cost, departments can effectively and efficiently train all current and new employees in a timely manner. This will ensure our first responders are operating in the safest and most efficient manner, thus protecting life and property of those we serve most effectively.

PERFORMANCE MEASURING

Measuring performance for first responders would be as follows: ? Fire/Rescue currently has 25 courses this would increase to 50 or more a year. ? Police and 911 currently have 11 cleet training this would increase to 25 cleet training classes of minimal of 25 students in each class ? EMS and Paramedics currently have 3 class and increasing to 6 classes a year.

ONGOING INVESTMENT AMOUNT

$

ONGOING INVESTMENT DESCRIPTION

None

ONGOING INVESTMENT REQUIRED

Able to continue operation without additional funding from the State of Oklahoma