Carbon County's proposed multiuse training facility cleared another hurdle, getting conditional preliminary plan approval in Nesquehoning on Monday night.

The borough planning commission voted 3-0 to approve the conditional approval of the project following a lengthy discussion with the project's engineers. Commission member John McArdle, who is also the Nesquehoning Hose Company fire chief, abstained from the vote due to his involvement in the project.Michael Tirpak and Greg Haas of Carbon Engineering outlined the project for the commission, answering any questions about the proposed emergency services facilities.The plans call for constructing a 29,045.50-square-foot emergency operations and training center building, two parking areas with 69 spaces, a 1,600-square-foot law enforcement training building, 400-square-foot observation tower, 1,820-square-foot firefighter's training building, 924-square-foot firefighter's training tower, a storage building, concrete burn pad for class A combustible materials (wood and straw materials) for fire training purposes and four concrete pads for other training or storage.Plans also include widening Emergency Lane, the road leading to the center, from 11 feet to 22 feet to accommodate firetruck and larger emergency vehicle traffic; widening the roadway turning radius to Emergency Lane and relocating the existing access driveway to the water treatment building on the north side of the property.The group discussed the pond planned for the site, how it will be constructed, stormwater runoff, the widening of Emergency Lane and the reviews from Lehigh Engineering and the Carbon County Planning Commission.The planning commission also voted to recommend that Nesquehoning Borough Council approve waivers for four items: that the plan scale be permitted to be over the 1 inch to 100 foot ratio; the sloping requirements for the pond berm dependent on the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection approval; allowing the height of the proposed firefighter training tower to not exceed 65 feet unless a variance is obtained dependent on borough zoning officer Gene Kennedy's interpretation of the definition of the structure; and approve the proposed four-story building from the borough's current maximum of 2½-story requirement to allow firefighters to train at different heights.Last week, Carbon County Planning Commission voted to recommend conditional preliminary plan approval for the project.The proposed training facility, which has been in the planning phase since last February, will be used by fire departments, EMS services, police, county departments and other organizations in Carbon County.The new site would provide emergency services with various practice sites, as well as classrooms, a 90-100 seat lecture hall, storage for the Carbon County Council of Government and other equipment and new offices for the Emergency Management Agency. The Carbon County 911 Communications Center will remain in the current building on the site, which now houses both the Communications Center and Emergency Management Agency.The project is estimated at $10 million. Carbon County Commissioners are working to secure the funding through state and federal grants. A total of $5 million in grants has been applied for, but any word on if the county was approved had been held up because of the nine-month state budget stalemate.The project is expected to be completed in 2019.