Thursday’s dedication of Big Bear Valley’s new Emergency Operations Center was an exciting day for members of Mountain Mutual Aid, who’d used the garage of the Big Bear City Fire Department to oversee emergency operations during 2003’s Old Fire, and members of the U.S. Air Force’s Civil Air Patrol Squadron 6750 which, per Commander Bruce Black, “As far as we know, we are now the only squadron in the country to have our own building.” The new facility at the Big Bear Airport, which has leased the land to CAP for $1 a year, was named in honor of Lieutenant Colonel William R. Hartmann, CAP’s Commander from 1999-2003, as, per the squadron’s Public Affairs Specialist Jim Gundred, “He is the driving force behind this building, he’s our motivator.”
The 3,500 square foot building–which includes large conference rooms; commercial kitchen and full bathroom to accommodate a days-long operation; computer and radio rooms, and 10 antennas to allow for each agency to communicate with their emergency responders; and a 30K natural gas back-up generator–was funded with individual donations of $189,000, in addition to fundraisers and community contributions of labor. “This is a great day for us,” Gundred raved. “We’ve been working on this building since June of 2004. It’s been all volunteers and donations of labor—no taxpayers dollars. I want to emphasize that this is a community effort. It’s amazing, over the years, how many people contributed.”
Many of those individuals joined Civil Air Patrol and Mountain Mutual Aid for the grand opening ceremony on November 19, during which time Lieutenant Colonel Hartmann did the honors of the ribbon cutting. Among those to address the crowd from the deck of the new, two-story building were Big Bear Lake Mayor Rick Herrick, with a congratulatory proclamation from the City; Big Bear City Community Services District President John Day, who said, “Thank God that it’s here”; former Airport General Manager Dick Lightner, who noted, “I’m happy to see this here, at the airport, where it belongs”; Mountain Mutual Aid VP and Big Bear City Fire Chief Jeff Willis, who said, “We are happy to have a facility that will meet our needs”; and the Big Bear Valley Historical Society’s Gloria Meade, who summed it up, “This is an historical event.”
