Military, Civilian Officials Shoot For Multi-Use Armory City, Sheriff, Guard Representatives Scouting For Funds For $30 Million Project

Spokane’s sheriff, a city councilman and a one-star general are in Washington, D.C., this week looking for federal money to build a $30 million training center near Spokane Community College.

The center would be for Spokane’s fire, police and sheriff’s departments. It would also serve as an armory for the Washington Army National Guard, which wants to move out of its World War II-era facilities at Geiger Field.

“If we could combine all this, it would keep us from an enormous amount of duplication,” said Brig. Gen. Terry Reed of the Washington Army National Guard.

And less duplication means taxpayer savings, said Reed, who is also assistant fire chief for the Spokane Fire Department.

The guard, police and sheriff’s deputies could use the same indoor shooting range. Everyone could use the same gymnasium and classrooms.

“We think it is a super concept, which is why we’ve been pushing it since the early ‘90s,” Spokane Fire Chief Bobby Williams said. “It is a meshing of similar and like agencies with similar and like missions.”

If funding comes through, the facility would be built on 5 to 7 acres the city of Spokane owns east of Spokane Community College.

The land is worth $500,000 to $700,000 and would be the city’s contribution to the project, said Councilman Jeff Colliton, who left for Washington, D.C., on Wednesday to lobby for the money.

The facility could also be used as a headquarters during natural or human-caused disasters, as a home for a new 911 call center and a training ground for the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms or the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Colliton said.

“We don’t have a state emergency operations center on the eastern side of the state at this time,” Colliton said. “We want to tell the feds that this would make sense to build because it could be used for the entire region.”

With $30 million, the facility could contain 130,000-150,000 square feet of space and include a 10,000-square-foot field house, Williams said.

The field house would be big enough to let the Fire Department bring in trucks, raise ladders and squirt water. Currently, there are no indoor training facilities for the department.

For the Guard, the new facility would let them get out of the “temporary” quarters they’ve been in at Geiger since the 1970s,” said Reed, who was a captain when the guard took up residence at the airport.

“The wiring is makeshift for our computer simulators. With the Army becoming more digitized there are just a lot of things that have changed from when we moved into these facilities,” he said.