ELIZABETHTOWN — When prospective commercial truck drivers in Bladen County get ready to train, they head to Fayetteville or Wilmington.
When deputies get ready to train using their vehicles, they sometimes head to the airport. They don’t always get to properly engage their equipment, such as the simplest combination of lights and siren.
Should funding and support be found for an idea at least two years in the making, Bladen County could be home to a facility that would serve both efforts. There’s no land to be bought, no future urban encroachment to worry about and plenty of opportunities to be gained.
The idea is a driving pad facility, estimated to cost about $6.2 million and jointly used by Bladen Community College and the Bladen County Sheriff’s Office. Funding options are developing, though yet to be a central focus thus far while the project gains foundational steps of momentum.
As proposed, it would be located on land at the Bladen County Emergency Training Facility on U.S. 701 between Elizabethtown and White Lake. The area surrounding it is wetlands, and already includes a law enforcement training area for firearms.
A 24-foot wide asphalt driving track of 0.9 miles would encircle an area to include two 600-by-600 foot asphalt pads. A classroom building, approximately 60-by-100 foot, would also be inside the oval. A smaller oval would adjoin the primary oval.
“It’s an exceptional idea,” said Dr. Amanda Lee, the college president who began in February. “To have the land available to do this on this magnitude is rare. To have the community involved, and people in public safety, it gives us a chance to service the community and the area around us. I’m absolutely thrilled.
“The site is approved. We know it will work there. It’s a fantastic opportunity.”
At a retreat of the county commissioners in February, the project was shared by Sheriff Jim McVicker and Sondra Guyton, the college vice president for Workforce and Continuing Education. They told commissioners the plan would be to request money through the state legislature and grants.
U.S. Rep. David Rouzer was briefed when he made a visit to the Campbell Terminal at Curtis L. Brown Jr. Field in March. His reception to the idea was positive. Guyton and Lee said state Rep. William Brisson and state Sen. Bill Rabon, as well as Gov. Roy Cooper, are also up to speed on the project and what it can do for the region.
Trucker shortage
Brian Campbell is the president and CEO of Campbell Oil Company, and owner of Cape Fear Transport. He’s also a college trustee and a native son to the county.
Campbell Oil employs approximately 40 truck drivers who need a commercial license. The nearest places if they desire to hire someone without one, however, are in Fayetteville and Wilmington.
“One of the issues for us right now is attracting talent to the county,” Campbell said. “If we can take drivers from the area, train them in the area so they don’t have to leave, that would be important for our business and many other businesses around the county.”
Bladen County encompasses nearly 900 square miles, but its population is less than 40,000. It is bordered by Cumberland, Sampson, Pender, Columbus and Robeson counties — a population base of another 625,000.
“The way the county is situated, you can probably pull 10 to 15 miles inside of each county that adjoins Bladen County,” Campbell said. “So it would be hugely beneficial for the county citizens and potential workers.”
McVicker stresses his push for the project goes well beyond any benefit for the Sheriff’s Office. It’s Bladen County as a whole, he says.
“Smithfield Packing, and other big trucking companies are excited about it,” McVicker said. “We can train our people locally instead of sending them out of the county.”
He recalls his conversations with Guyton as the idea has gained some footing.
“She says they get requests every day at the college for truck driver training, but they have nowhere to do it,” McVicker said.
Guyton said that’s true, and that both targets for usage will benefit.
“We need the public safety and the truck driver training,” she said. “The truck driver training is going to provide workforce development training that we don’t have, and economic development opportunities.
“Then public safety is going to make what we’re doing even better, and pull people to the region that wouldn’t be here otherwise.”
Guyton remembers conversations about the shortage of truck drivers between Campbell’s father, Mac Campbell Jr., and the president Lee succeeded, Dr. William Findt. She describes the initial investment in such a facility as one reaping a handsome reward.
The college now can pay, through Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act funds, about $5,000 to Roadmaster to train one student in truck driver training.
“That student could be training through the community college for about $500,” Guyton said of the difference. “That student, right out of the gate, can make about $45,000. Depending on experience or complexity, you could possibly make … about $65,000. Depending on where you’re working, salary ranges are up to $100,000 or $125,000. But the average, according to Indeed, is $65,000. Roadmaster says $45,000 starting out of the gate. These are short-term trainings that can produce some good salaries. And there is a nationwide shortage of truck drivers.”
Only one other
Built in full, with classroom space and asphalt pads inside the oval, the facility would have just one peer from Manteo to Murphy — the facility operated by the State Highway Patrol in Wake County.
“You’ve got to have that pad, that asphalt pad designed for the weight of trucks, because we want people to train on a variety of vehicles,” Lee said.
McVicker, a retired trooper and 43rd-year lawman, said the Highway Patrol’s facility goes full tilt 50 weeks of the year with two reserved for annual maintenance and upkeep to the wear and tear. It’s also being encroached upon by urban development.
As for the Bladen proposal, “It’s surrounded by wetlands,” McVicker said. “The Highway Patrol built theirs, and now it’s surrounded by apartments. People complain about noise, sirens at 10 o’clock at night — we won’t have that problem.
“You’re talking about realistic training. This will include 600-by-600 driving pads — one of them is for tractor-trailers, built different to sustain heavy equipment. The other is for cars, to do all your cone courses. The oval will have a two-lane road with curves and hills. You train like what you’re driving on, rather than a parking lot like we train on now.”
McVicker said while pursuit training would be a benefit, there’s much more such as accident investigations and practicing stops of motorists. Another possibility is using the facility in the driver training of teens.
“Maybe we would let them start using this for some kind of revenue, or with a driver instructor available, maybe 15-year-olds trying to get a learner’s permit,” the second-term sheriff said.
The possibilities with outside-the-box thinking, he said, could be many.
College benefit
The college would benefit through FTEs, the acronym for full-time equivalent. It is a budget term that can be complicated. In short and most important, it is part of the equation to help determine the college’s annual operating budget.
“For every hour a student sits in class, the college earns budget FTEs for it,” Guyton said. “It takes 512 hours to equal one FTE.”
All classes earn credit toward FTEs. The state’s 58 community colleges share budget money that, in part, is based on each respective institution’s FTEs.
“When you do public safety, they do a lot of shorter trainings and they add up,” Guyton said.
The training includes not only Bladen County deputies, but other law enforcement agencies as well. The addition of a facility that would enable more first responder training would enable the college to offer more choices, and it would be likely to reach into other nearby counties.
The college is poised to implement a new degree program in public safety administration that combines emergency management, criminal justice and fire protection. The state community college board approved the new degree last week.
“There’s a lot more training involved today,” said Chuck Heustess, the county’s director of economic development. “All kinds of jobs, you used to just go out and learn on the job. It’s not like that anymore. And that’s a good thing, that you’re certified, and there’s a lot more training, and you learn to handle situations better before they happen in real life.
“From the EMS, law enforcement, public safety side, it would be a great thing for a lot of different municipalities, and government organizations around, to have somewhere close by to do that kind of training.”
McVicker sees this as a possible next step toward enhancing a gift already given.
“We were so fortunate to get that prison,” he said of the former correctional facility, now owned by the Bladen County Law Enforcement Association. “We worked with lawmakers to make that happen. The law enforcement association owns the firing range, a little over a mile down in the woods. This 109 acres of land that was just given to us, and its between the firing range and the training center. Once you drive on the premises, everything is right there.
“This is where we do our basic training. Everything we do out there goes through the college, which brings revenue in for them. We have 200 patrolmen come here twice a year to do qualifications on the firing range.”
And the FTEs add up. More of them, say college officials, can be gained.
Future workforce
Guyton is heavily invested in workforce development through the sheer nature of her job. And Campbell, at the helm of one of Bladen County’s most thriving businesses, has a keen eye on the future as well.
“Businesses are consolidating, and unfortunately when they consolidate, they go to larger cities,” he said. “So anything that we can do to continue to keep people here working in Bladen County, and for businesses to continue to prosper, is going to benefit everybody in the county. And that includes the school system, that includes the businesses, and that includes the citizens, and that includes the community college.
“That facility has the ability to impact everybody in the county. I don’t think anyone gets left out. I think it creates opportunity, and opportunity is there for everybody. It’s not picking certain sides, it’s there for everybody. I think it would be a huge asset if they can get it.”
If the facility were to evolve and be a destination for people from outside Bladen County, a domino effect happens.
“As an economic development opportunity, you’re bringing a lot of people in that may stay in rooms locally, eat at restaurants, buy gas, so it would be important from that point, too,” Heustess said.
More directly to the people in the county, Heustess believes the facility could dramatically change some households.
“There are people out there that don’t have jobs, or they have jobs that are lower skilled and don’t pay as much,” he said. “And if they were to get a truck driver’s license, those are very good paying jobs. However, it is difficult to go off and get truck driver training sometimes because the closest training may be hours away, and it’s hard to quit work for months to go get the training.
“If we had a local facility where we could train, a lot more local people could work their job, maybe a second shift job, go to school during the day, get their license, and have a much better paying job to help support their families. Then, on the other side, hopefully provide a lot more licensed and skilled truck drivers for our businesses and industries.”
Lee said it’s “one of those projects that makes sense.” Whereas obtaining land might be a huge hurdle, that’s already conquered. Now it’s a matter of putting together $6 million, which everyone admits is no small challenge.
“It’s going to absolutely be a collective effort of many entities,” she said. “If we get the legislative support, it’d be a wonderful gift. We’ll more likely have to get support from several different places.”
Sheriff Jim McVicker addresses county commissioners at a February retreat, explaining advantages of a proposed driving pad at the Bladen County Emergency Training Facility. Sondra Guyton, of Bladen Community College and not pictured here, joined McVicker in making the presentation.
The proposed driving pad would be located on land at the Bladen County Emergency Training Facility on U.S. 701 between Elizabethtown and White Lake. A 24-foot wide asphalt driving track of 0.9 miles would encircle an area that includes two 600-by-600 foot asphalt pads. A classroom building, approximately 60-by-100 foot, would also be inside the oval. A smaller oval would adjoin the primary oval.