Stanly County Airport will be home to a major emergency training center, thanks to a partnership between the state insurance department and the North Carolina Air National Guard.
Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey recently announced the agreement. An existing training facility at the county airport will be expanded to accommodate military and civilian trainees as long as the North Carolina Guard can secure $25,000,000 in funding from the federal government.
"The plan is to have the next phase of this up and running by 2020 or 2021, so it's about a four-year window to buy the land and get the buildings completed on the expansion," Causey said.
Trainees would come from all around the world to train at the airport and on the surrounding area's rugged terrain.
"Within 10 miles you have three lakes, you have rivers, you have the Mar Mountain State Park, you have the Uwharrie National Forest, so the geographic area, you can train for anything that North Carolina has," Causey pointed out.
San Antonio, Texas, is home to the only other such training center in the country.