BCCC Hosts Public Safety Training Center Ribbon Cutting and David A. Crosby Boardroom Christening Ceremony

WASHINGTON, North Carolina – Beaufort County Community College held a groundbreaking ceremony for its public safety training center on Thursday and dedicated the conference room inside the building in honor of David A. Crosby .

The newest building on campus serves the college’s EMS and fire programs and entered service in 2021, though the college has postponed a groundbreaking ceremony for public health reasons.

The Public Safety Training Center, the 16th building on campus, is the final component of BCCC’s Emergency Workforce and Training Complex. Construction was awarded to Farrior & Sons of Farmville, NC The 5,028 square foot building includes two classrooms and two parking areas to store training vehicles. One of the classrooms is a state-of-the-art EMS lab for hands-on training on a full body trauma patient simulator.

The emergency manpower and training complex consists of a 500 ‘x 600’ emergency vehicle driving area, North Carolina’s largest public driving area, and the tower Fire Training, a facility where firefighters practice rappelling, navigating dark, smoke-filled buildings, and rescue operations involving multi-story structures. The driving mat is used by law enforcement and service training programs across the region, as well as BCCC motorcycle safety courses.

Construction of the $ 2.1 million building was funded through the 2016 voter-backed Connect NC Bond. The bond funded $ 6.5 million in improvements and additions to the BCCC campus, including a physical accessibility overhaul that included automated gates, new sidewalks and crosswalks, and updates elevators; construction of the emergency vehicle driving area, including lighting; and initial capital purchases for the new boat building program.

David Crosby was a respected volunteer EMT and instructor in Beaufort County. He has served the communities of Bath, Sydney and Community as a volunteer. Crosby attended Hudson Valley Community College and York College and went on to earn an MA from East Carolina University. He and his wife Lucy have lived in Belhaven for 32 years.

Crosby has worked with BCCC for 28 years, as Associate Dean of Continuing Education, Compensatory Training Coordinator, Vocational Extension Support Instructor, and Director of Vocational Extension. Through these roles, Crosby has overseen personal enrichment, vocational training, fire training, high school equivalency, human resource development, CPR and EMS programs. Through the programs he taught and supervised, he touched the lives of many in Beaufort County.

Over 250 students complete fire and EMS programs in a typical year, including initial certification and continuing education. These students are currently distributed among different classrooms on campus. With the addition of the BCCC’s Associate in Applied Science in Emergency Medical Science bridging program, that number is expected to increase. Hospitals have started hiring paramedics to fill nursing roles in intensive care units and emergency departments, adding more versatility to the certification.

The EMS program has seen a recent increase in enrollment, in part due to the high success rate of the paramedical program. The program saw 19 complete the initial emergency technician class and 28 complete the paramedic class.

“Our vision is focused on improving the quality of life for residents of our region,” said Dr. David Loope, President of BCCC. “There is no more direct way to achieve this goal than to train first responders in fires, EMS and law enforcement. The new Public Security Complex will allow us to meet the needs of our vast service area for decades to come.

BCCC serves a four-county region that has only one fire and rescue service within the city of Washington. Annual training for firefighters and first responders is critical to the safety of area residents, and assets like the driving range are not available anywhere else in the area.

The new building is an investment in the lives and livelihoods of residents of Beaufort County and surrounding areas.