By Steven Matthews
Dayton Daily News
FAIRBORN — The city is banking on the development of Calamityville, the National Center for Medical Readiness, as a driver of economic growth in the region.
But, that impact won’t be seen for several years because the 54-acre site run by Wright State University is not yet fully operational.
Calamityville is a collaborative training and research facility. Its purpose is to prepare civilian and military medical communities and first-responders for disasters.
Calamityville - the former CEMEX plant at 506 E. Xenia Drive - opened in March 2011. Emergency medical simulations also take place at two other sites, totaling 340 acres, in Greene County.
Fairborn City Manager Deborah McDonnell said she hopes to reap the economic development rewards of the project in the coming five years.
“For us, it really is the biggest economic boost since Wright State opened their doors over 40 years ago,” Mc-Donnell said. “It opens up so much for potential in research and development consistent with the medical training Wright State provides in the area of national preparedness for response and recovery.”
The city has turned attention to economic development along Interstate 675 to support the people who they expect to come to the center to train.
In the city of Fairborn’s 2010 comprehensive annual financial report, Calamityville - when fully operational - has a projected economic impact of $374 million over a five-year period for the Miami Valley region, according to an economic analysis prepared by Wright State.
Those are the latest, and only, figures available, and according to Wright State spokeswoman Stephanie Gottschlich, those numbers still apply today.
“We’re truly excited,” said Ryan Fendley, interim director of Calamityville. “We now stand on the cusp of delivering for the community a tremendous regional asset that is unique and has the potential to draw federal work as well as support a number of state initiatives.”
It cost $3 million to clean up the Calamityville site, and it was paid for by a Clean Ohio Fund grant ($1.8 million), Wright State ($1 million) and a federal grant ($200,000), Mc-Donnell said. No city funds were used.
“The hard part for people is conceptualizing what this is,” McDonnell said. “The general public doesn’t fully understand what they’re doing there. They’re not fully operating, so there’s a sense that nothing’s happening there. In fact, there’s a lot happening. They’re just not advertising it to the public.”
Bud McCormick, the associate director of Calamityville, said nearly 10,000 people have participated in health care professional training since 2006 at Wright State’s Boonshoft School of Medicine and Calamityville combined. In 2010-11, more than 5,500 medical simulations were conducted.
No numbers were available as to how many have trained there since it opened.
Calamityville has a partnership with the Ohio Emergency Management Agency, and hosts organizations such as the FBI, SWAT, Ohio State Highway Patrol and Ohio National Guard.
Nancy Dragani, the executive director of the Ohio EMA, said Calamityville’s proximity to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base gives it a unique advantage.
“From the very beginning, this is a project that has tremendous appeal to me because it’s not being done anywhere else in the nation where the focus is on emergency medicine training,” Dragani said.
Not everybody in Fairborn, though, is sold on the idea, including longtime resident Cheri McGee, who called the site an “eyesore in our community.”
“I think it’s the biggest mistake they’ve made,” McGee said. “They haven’t done anything with it. They’ve promised the moon and delivered nothing.”
But city and university officials are waiting on a key piece to occur - clearance from the Environmental Protection Agency. Once the city, which owns the land after it was donated by CEMEX, receives a “no further action” letter from the EPA, it will turn the property over to Wright State.
McDonnell said she expects that to all be finalized in the next 12 months.
“We still think that’s relevant and a reasonable expectation,” Fendley said of Wright State’s economic analysis. “I would say the clock on that would probably begin six months after the EPA cleared it, and we’d see an uptick in training, testing and research. We’d see our portfolio grow. Then within the next five years I could see it get to the point where we’ve had that kind of an impact.
“Clearly, Calamityville has had a positive impact on the city of Fairborn so far,” he added. “It is our goal, desire and expectation that the impact to date only represents the tip of the iceberg of the impact it’s going to have.”
Copyright 2012 Dayton Newspapers, Inc.