For the first time, the City of Yonkers will have its own Police and Fire Special Operations Training Center. A groundbreaking ceremony took place on June 22 at the 120 Fullerton Ave. site where the new facility is to be built in two phases.
Approximately 1.2-acres of city-owned land will being used for the center. In the 1960s, the city’s animal shelter was located at the Fullerton Avenue site and was closed in 2013 when a new state-of-the-art shelter was opened at 1000 Ridge Hill Blvd.
It is estimated that the custom-built facility will cost $1.5 million, with about $750,000 from the city, $500,000 from the state and the rest from The Marty & Iris Walshin Foundation, The Denis Leary Foundation, the Police & Fire Memorial Foundation of Yonkers and donations from individuals.
When completed the new training center is expected to have a city streetscape where police officers can train in buildings that simulate the various types of structures actually found in the city. Training areas for firefighters will include facilities to practice rope rescues, roof cutting for ventilation, hose line deployment, rescue of trapped firefighters and more.
“Currently our first responders can only train at the county facility in Valhalla,” Mayor Mike Spano said. “Yonkers is now investing in a custom-made special operations training center right here on this spot.”
Spano said that a prefabricated fire training building is expected to be delivered this fall and that a prefabricated steel building especially designed for police training and housing  classroom is expected to open in the spring of 2024. He emphasized that both the fire and police departments will share the entire facility.
State Sen. Shelley Mayer, who with Assemblyman Nader Sayegh was involved in obtaining the state funding, noted that there will be special training for dealing with possible incidents in schools.
Police Commissioner Christopher Sapienza called the groundbreaking a significant milestone in ensuring the safety of Yonkers’ citizens as well as police officers and firefighters.
“Our city has always been at the forefront of progress and today we take another step forward in ensuring the highest level of preparedness for our police and fire departments,” Sapienza said. “The new training center will serve as a hub of excellence providing our officers with necessary experience, tools and resources to tackle the most complex and challenging situations.”
Yonkers Fire Commissioner Anthony Pagano recalled having to travel to the county’s training center in Valhalla 40 years ago when he first joined the Yonkers department.
“The training that we did up there was difficult because we had to transport many different pieces of equipment, we had to work on the times that the county allowed us to and we always looked forward to coming back home into Yonkers,” Pagano said. “This training center is not just going to be good for firefighters and police officers but for every citizen in the city of Yonkers. Why? Because the more we train, the better we can do our jobs, the safer that the citizens in Yonkers are.”
