Regional training center avoids veto pen

Scott County leaders are celebrating this week because $1 million for a regional public safety training facility made it past Gov. Tim Pawlenty's veto pen, just as work wraps up on the first phase of the complex near Jordan.

"This is going to be great," said Joe Wagner, a county commissioner who said local police and firefighters have long needed a good place to train. "This is going to be an asset for all the counties in the metro area."

County project consultant Rob Boe said the quest for more funding in the bonding bill passed by the Legislature last week has "been a bit of a rollercoaster." Local legislators asked for $3.2 million for the facility, but the House didn't initially approve any money, and "we flat-out didn't know what the governor would do on the veto," he said.

The $1 million will allow planners to pick from a list of improvements to the facility, which already has $7.5 million from Scott County and its cities, the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community and a two-year-old state allocation of $1 million.

Rep. Mike Beard, R-Shakopee, who sponsored the measure this session, said Thursday that he plans to go back for another $2.2 million in two years, during the next bonding session.

"We just bring a little bit home every time," he said.

On Tuesday, New Prague police held the first official training on one of two new shooting ranges at the facility, a state-of-the-art center with a five-story burn tower and classrooms for police and firefighters in the county's former jail annex.

The groups teamed up, and the county donated land for the project around the jail annex where the county used to house work-release inmates. In previous incarnations, the building served as a treatment center for alcoholics, a religious retreat and -- way back in the day -- a fancy health spa where guests used to enjoy the therapeutic benefits of mud from the Minnesota River.

The training center hasn't yet taken advantage of every room in the huge building, but planners have made a good start. One classroom in the old jail has an interactive video simulator where police officers can practice skills such as handling a high-speed chase and deciding when to shoot a suspect. The two outdoor shooting ranges, both with sound and safety buffers, include a 25-yard range that goes well beyond the traditional "cops on a line" stationary target practice, and a 200-yard range for rifle practice, Boe said.

And a tactical training tower built nearby allows fire departments to set real fires in a controlled environment with gas-fired burners and non-toxic theater smoke. Trainers can extinguish a blaze in a snap to give pointers or maintain safety, and they can set up different challenges for teams depending on their experience.

"If you have new firefighters just learning the skills, they can have a fairly simple fire," Boe said. But if the team is seasoned, "You can give them a much more difficult fire."

"It's really conducive to coaching," he said.

Upgrades could include more burners in the burn tower, more shooting range features or driving simulators that could be used to train drivers of fire trucks, snow plows, school buses and the like, Boe said.

Ultimately, the facility could include a dormitory in former inmate cells where groups could spend the night, as well as training features such as rail cars where hazardous materials teams and firefighters could practice dealing with train wrecks, he said.