A new firefighter training facility could soon be on the horizon for Kenton County.
On Monday, the Kenton County Fiscal Court voted to release funds held for the Kenton County Fire Chief’s Association to purchase a nearly three-acre plot of land to build a new training facility.
The property in question is located at 3681 Madison Pike — directly south of the Gateway Community & Technical College Transportation Technology Center. It’s owned by Erlanger-based Tuscany Investments.
Association President Paul LaFontaine penned a letter to Kenton County Treasurer Roy Cox on April 19 requesting county funds to help purchase the land.
“On behalf of the Kenton County Fire Chief’s Association, I am requesting $74,561.12 for the purchase of 2.991 acres on Madison Pike, commonly discussed as the “Tuscany Fischer Property” for the new Kenton County Fire Training Center,” he wrote.
Kenton County’s Wieholter Training Center—located on a 2.5-acre plot of land off Boron Drive in Covington—closed in the spring of 2022 after Rumpke purchased the property. Rumpke planned to redevelop the land without reconstructing a new fire training facility on the site. Rumpke eventually opened an $8.2 million transfer station off Boron Drive earlier this year.
The now-shuttered Wieholter Training Facility opened in 1972. Originally, the facility was available to the Covington Fire Department for use as a fire training center. In 1982, the City of Covington, Kenton County Fiscal Court and Kenton County Fire Chief’s Association reached an agreement to hand over operation of the training center to the fire chief’s association.
Kenton County has not had a firefighting training center since the Wieholter facility closed, Independence Assistant Fire Chief Nick Russell told LINK nky.
In March 2022, Rumpke entered into a Memorandum of Agreement with the Kenton County Fiscal Court and Kenton County Fire Chief’s Association, in which the waste management company committed $1 million toward a new training center.
As part of the agreement, the fiscal court would act as the project’s fiscal agent, meaning it would receive the $1 million from Rumpke to hold and then distribute to the fire chief’s association as needed.
“I will just acknowledge, as you might remember, when the Kenton County fire training facility was sold, there was a million dollars put and it’s been held in our bank accounts separately,” Kenton County Judge/Executive Kris Knochelmann said during the meeting. “They (Kenton County Fire Chief’s Association) have been able to acquire the property, we just need to release those funds so they can continue to work on the project.”
The payment is set to be sent to the Fort Mitchell-based Kentucky Land Title Agency, LLC, according to LaFontaine’s letter.
Looking forward, Russell said the Kenton County Fire Chief’s Association is in the process of finalizing the project’s architect and then commencing the development/design process.
