MAYOR LIGHTFOOT, CITY AND COMMUNITY LEADERS CUT RIBBON TO OFFICIALLY UNVEIL THE PUBLIC SAFETY TRAINING CENTER

Center dedicated to CPD Commander Paul Bauer and CFD Firefighter MaShawn Plummer

CHICAGO — Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot joined Chicago Police Department Superintendent David O. Brown, Chicago Fire Department Commissioner Annette Nance-Holt, Alderman Emma Mitts (37th Ward), Dr. Elizabeth Lockhart, and community partners to cut the ribbon on the recently completed Public Safety Training Center (PSTC). This cutting-edge training center will provide the cities’ first responders with the most modern facilities to hone their skills for emergency response situations, investigations, and tactical operations.

“To make Chicago the safest big city in the country, we must invest in both our first responders and in our neighborhoods,” said Mayor Lightfoot. “The Public Safety Training Center is a demonstration of these commitments, and was created in partnership with public safety experts and the community in mind. The PSTC will help deliver a new generation of police officers and firefighters, and the businesses developed around it will contribute to more meaningful investments in the West Humboldt Park neighborhood.”

CHATHAM-SOUTHEAST

Chatham,

The Public Safety Training Center features a six-story tower with each floor simulating different environment firefighters encounter daily, including apartments, hotels, and office buildings. The center also includes an indoor and outdoor scenario village replicating a four-way intersection common in most neighborhoods. The departments will use this scenario village to train first responders on how to respond to various emergency calls.

“Opening the new Public Safety Training Center represents a public safety milestone for the city of Chicago with collaborative education, and sophisticated training and tools for the next generation of first responders and current police officers alike,” said CPD Superintendent David O. Brown. “This campus is both an investment in the community and active part of this community that will engage and inspire youth and grow trust while connecting residents.”

“Having proudly served 32 years so far in the fire department, I understand fully what a firehouse can mean to a community and I’m confident this facility will be an anchor in this neighborhood,” said Commissioner Nance-Holt. “Sharing this location with Boys & Girls Club is truly a blessing. As children are coming and going from their club activities, they might get a chance to see first responders who they can relate to and hopefully spark a dream to one day serve this great city as a Firefighter, Paramedic, or Police Officer.”

The facility sits on a 30.4-acre former rail yard that, prior to the City’s purchase in 2017, had been sitting vacant for more than 40 years. In addition to the main academy building, the site will also host two minority-owned restaurants, Peach’s and Culvers, as well as a 27,000-square-foot Boys and Girls Club that are all slated to open this summer. The purpose of these establishments is to provide an economic pillar point for the community. Combined, the PSTC, the Boys and Girls Club, and the Culver’s and Peach’s restaurants represent approximately $170M in public and private investments in this community.

“I’m proud the Public Safety Training Center is in West Humboldt Park and that our community will play a role in serving hundreds of recruits tasked with protecting the city,” said Alderman Emma Mitts (37th Ward). “The PSTC is critical to public safety and training firefighters and police officers. Additionally, the facility is attracting businesses like Culver’s and Peach’s restaurants and organizations like the Boys and Girls Club to our neighborhood, ensuring more job opportunities for our residents.”

The PSTC is situated between two Invest South/West – one in Austin and the other in West Humboldt Park – that will see $95M in new private investment in the coming years. This investment will radiate from this building toward Austin and West Humboldt Park, and vice versa, connecting neighborhoods and creating a lively corridor with new businesses, living-wage jobs, and better housing.

FOSTER, DURBIN, DUCKWORTH INTRODUCE RESOLUTION TO NAME FERMILAB RESEARCH CENTER AFTER RENOWNED PHYSICIST DR. HELEN EDWARDS

Representatives Bill Foster (D-IL-11) and Lauren Underwood (DIL-14), and Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) announced that they introduced a bicameral resolution to rename Fermilab’s Integrated Engineering Research Center (IERC) after the late Dr. Helen Edwards, who worked at Fermilab as a particle physicist for 40 years. The IERC will be home to new office and lab space that will host an intersection of scientific disciplines.

“Over its history, Fermilab’s success has been built by the hard work of committed scientists. Helen Edwards was a scientific and technical leader of Fermilab from its earliest days, and she was a dear friend. Helen was also deeply committed to the accelerator research and engineering that will be carried out in the Integrated Engineering Research Center, and it is altogether fitting that it bears her name. I’m proud to be continuing this effort in the U.S. House to honor her memory,” said Foster.

“Dr. Helen Edwards was an extraordinary scientist who dedicated 40 years of her life to deepening our understanding of particle physics. Her pioneering work on the Tevatron earned her well-deserved national recognition and provided the foundation for the advanced particle physics research conducted by Fermilab scientists today,” said Durbin. “I cannot think of a worthier namesake for Fermilab’s new IERC than Dr. Helen Edwards.”

“Illinois’s own Fermilab is a crown jewel of American innovation at the forefront of cutting-edge science,” Duckworth said. “For years, hundreds of scientists and engineers at Fermilab have dedicated their expertise to scientific discovery and answering some of the world’s most complicated questions, including the late and brilliant Dr. Helen Edwards. Not only is renaming the Integrated Engineering Research Center after her well-deserved, I think it tells generations of girls interested in science that they belong at the table. I’m proud to help reintroduce this resolution with Senator Durbin.”

“Helen Edwards was an inspiring and passionate scientist who was dedicated and instrumental to the development of the Tevatron. I am pleased we can honor her by naming the Integrated Engineering Research Center after someone who embodied the spirit of Fermilab,” said Dr. Lia Merminga, Director of Fermilab.

Dr. Edwards was a particle physicist best known for overseeing the design, construction, commissioning, and operation of the Tevatron, a machine that for 25 years served as the most powerful particle collider in the world. The Tevatron was used to find two of three fundamental particles discovered at Fermilab – the top quark in 1995 and the tau neutrino in 2000.

Dr. Edwards’ work on the Tevatron earned her a MacArthur Genius Grant in 1988 and the National Medal of Technology in 1989. The Tevatron remained in use until 2011 when Fermilab moved to new accelerator projects like the Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility, which relies heavily on the foundations built by Dr. Edwards. Dr. Edwards passed away in 2016.

HUNTER CELEBRATES $1.8 MILLION IN PRE-APPRENTICESHIP INVESTMENTS

CHICAGO – Several pre-apprenticeship programs in the 3rd District received over $1.8 million in combined investments thanks to the support of State Senator Mattie Hunter.

“I am pleased to see these pre-apprenticeship programs have received the funding they need to further provide training and support services for participants,” said Hunter (D-Chicago). “These investments will pave the way to good-paying jobs for historically underrepresented populations.”

The Illinois Works Pre-Apprenticeship was created to promote diversity, inclusion and use of apprentices in state-funded capital projects. Comprehensive pre-apprenticeship programs help participants gain admission to apprenticeship programs, which provide a greater opportunity to obtain employment in the construction trades and secure long-term employment.

A total of $13 million awarded in the program’s second year will expand access to the program across the state and serve up to 1,400 pre-apprentices — a 40% increase from the program’s inaugural year. Organizations in the 3rd District receiving funds include: Children First Fund, $250,000; EDDR Foundation-Chicago, $500,000; HIRE360, $555,000; and Project Hood Communities Development Corporation, $500,000.

“These programs are key to building a skilled labor force and will not only benefit our community but serve as an investment in our economy as well,” Hunter said. “People interested in the trades can take advantage of pre-apprenticeship opportunities to develop a marketable set of skills.”

Participants of the program attend tuition-free and receive a stipend and other supportive, barrier reduction services to help enter the construction industry. Upon completion of the program, pre-apprentices receive industry aligned certifications to prepare and qualify them to continue to a registered apprenticeship program in one of the trades.

Information on the Illinois Works Pre-Apprenticeship Program can be found here.