BERNE — The Hilltown Regional Fire Training Corporation, formed this summer, is finishing its regulatory approvals and gearing up for raising the estimated $940,000 needed before breaking ground in 2017.

On 26 acres along a state route in East Berne, 11 local fire companies plan to build a training facility, with spaces for classrooms and controlled fires, to train volunteer firefighters and emergency medical technicians mainly from the rural areas of Albany County.

So far, a required environmental review was conducted for the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation. An area of oil-contaminated soil was removed, as the property had been home to a gas station and a paving company in the past. Nine of the 26 acres are delineated as federal wetlands, close to the proposed site of the future structure that will be intentionally set on fire.

More than 2,600 feet of stream waters flow through the property, which is mostly forestland, and drain into Fox Creek, according to the report from Bagdon Environmental.

“We have to be extremely wary of those boundaries, so as not to disturb those wetlands,” said Richard Guilz Jr., chairman of the not-for-profit corporation and chief of the Berne Fire District.

Several acres of trees on the property will be logged before the end of the month, with a buffer of trees left to conceal the facility from the road, according to Guilz.  An archeological survey is its next regulatory hurdle to clear as the site is in an archeologically sensitive area near Warners Lake.

Lamont Engineers will design the project, with civil engineering handled by Albany County. An underground drainage system will have to be installed. The particles produced in burning hay and wooden pallets on the property will be sprayed from a supply pond and drain into a separate containment pond, to be trucked away later.

The site could also include mock propane-fire facilities, a modular classroom, an extrication pad, and a training tower. The plan calls for fencing in the area of the facilities.

In a separate project, the East Berne Fire Company’s future firehouse will also be built on the property, purchased in 2013. Planning for the firehouse hasn’t begun in earnest, and public hearings and a vote to finance the project have yet to be held, but Berne fire Commissioner Mary Alice Molgard said the company hopes to start breaking ground in 2017.

The Berne Fire District set aside 10 acres on the property for the use of the training facilities.

The fire-training corporation was formed in June 2014, as an educational organization under the vocational, technical classification.

Its board of directors is made up of members of the Albany County Rural Fire Chiefs Association and commissioners from the Berne Fire District.

With support from politicians, the corporation will have a better chance of getting government grants and pursuing capital-projects money in the state budget, Guilz said.

“I’m banking on us now starting hopefully a very positive PR campaign…to put some money in the checking account so we can start off the project engineering,” said Guilz.

The first fundraiser for the training center is slated for March 14. Held at the Maple on the Lake. Officials plan to display potential placements for the facilities and pictures of how they might appear.

While the construction will be funded through a mix of grants and donations, the ongoing costs are expected to be covered by dues paid by the 11 fire companies associated with the Albany County Rural Fire Chiefs Association.

When the project was first proposed by the fire chiefs’ association, the district held a public meeting in March last  year. The main contention was whether a shooting range for the Albany County Sheriff’s Office would be located at the property. That plan was scrapped after a petition circulated opposing the project.

“The negative side of this is we lost the potential financial help of the sheriff,” said Guilz, adding that there was no formal commitment made.

Still others at the public meeting last year had concerns about the sights, sounds, and smells that could come from a live-burn facility. A typical burning exercise will take three to five minutes, and a class might go through six to nine such exercises in a day, according to Kevin Flensted, chief of the Westerlo Fire Company and an instructor for the state’s Office of Fire Prevention and Control.

“The fire engines running and pumps would be like a tractor in a nearby field,” Guilz said of what neighbors might hear, along with the occaissional toot of an airhorn. The most common times for the facility to be in use will be Monday and Wednesday evenings, with some Saturdays.

The property was once an auto repair business, and it had a dilapidated residential building and “junk” that Guilz said had to be cleared away. On either side are a Mobil gas station and a True Value hardware store, while residential property, agricultural land, and a Christian school are nearby.