Call to Order and Roll Call
The 4th meeting of the Interim Joint Committee on Veterans, Military Affairs, and Public Protection was held on Thursday, September 13, 2012, at 1:30 PM, at the Kentucky State Police Training Facility in Frankfort, Kentucky. Senator Jack Westwood, Chair, called the meeting to order, and the secretary called the roll.
Present were:
Members: Senator Jack Westwood, Co-Chair; Representative Tanya Pullin, Co-Chair; Senators Joe Bowen, Vernie McGaha, Dennis Parrett, Kathy W. Stein, and Mike Wilson; Representatives Royce W. Adams, Tom Burch, Mike Cherry, Tim Couch, Ron Crimm, Robert R. Damron, Myron Dossett, Martha Jane King, Jimmie Lee, Donna Mayfield, Tim Moore, Tom Riner, Carl Rollins II, Rita Smart, John Tilley, Ben Waide, and Alecia Webb-Edgington.
Guests: Boyce Wells, Operations Division, Lt. Col. Leslie Gannon, Administrative Division Director, Lt. Tom Pyzik, Assistant Academy Commander, and Morgain Sprague, Legal Counsel, Kentucky State Police.
LRC Staff: Erica Warren, Tiffany Opii, Kristopher Shera, and Rhonda Schierer.
Minutes
The committee’s August meeting minutes could not be adopted due to a lack of a quorum. The minutes will be presented at the October meeting for adoption.
Kentucky State Police Training Facility Tour
The Veterans, Military Affairs, and Public Protection committee members toured the new Kentucky State Police training facility at 380 Coffee Tree Road, Frankfort, Kentucky. Boyce Wells led members on a tour of the facility and discussed the accomplishments made with it. He discussed the advantages of the facility’s central location and stated that KSP be able to offer training to federal, state, and local agencies. Mr. Wells discussed the benefits of KSP having its own administration building, cafeteria and dining facility, multipurpose room for ceremonies and other events, a weight room, dorms where cadets can be housed, and land for physical training, among many benefits to having the property and facilities.
Along with Mr. Wells, Lt. Col. Leslie Gannon indicated KSP’s vision for the future of the facility beyond the remodeling of the dorms and administration building, including hopes for an indoor firing range so that KSP can dictate its own training schedule rather than conform to the schedule of borrowed facilities. The added space and the new sites potential will allow KSP to have more cadet classes, which will help increase the number of troopers in the field. With 900 total troopers in Kentucky and only 475 of them on the road, KSP has fewer troopers in the field than ever before.
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned.