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HERO Center breaks ground, expanding horizon of training capabilities across region
Co-authored by: Greg Rinzel, Cottage Grove Public Safety & Kris Mienert, Woodbury Public Safety
After years of focused work, in October 2018, the HERO CENTER moved one step closer to completion. Through the combined leadership of the Cities of Woodbury and Cottage Grove, with support from multiple agencies and partial funding from the State of Minnesota, a vision for a new regional training facility became reality. In concert with Leo A Daly architects and RJM Construction, the team broke ground on a new 47,308 Square Foot state-of-the-art immersive training center for police, fire and emergency medical services.
“We are extremely excited to bring this facility to reality and to provide officers with a first-rate, technologically-advanced and safe area to improve their response skills,” says Lee Vague, Woodbury’s Public Safety Director. “When you look at what’s available throughout the Twin Cities, you’ll see a large void in this corner of the metro. The HERO center will help us improve our service to our residents while also helping Cottage Grove, Woodbury and our partners to recruit new police candidates in the years to come.” says Pete Koerner, Public Safety Director for Cottage Grove.
The HERO Center is the first multi-agency, new-build training center, dedicated to serving all first responders, in nearly a decade. “As Chiefs, we’re always challenged by time, space and budget constraints. The HERO center will help us in all three categories and we know the facility can help other departments facing similar issues. We hope this project will bring our law enforcement agencies together by sharing costs and offering the best training available,” says Vague.
There is both time and space available for any police and first responder partners. Whether it’s classroom space, range time, use-of-force training, ladder, apparatus, or canine, the HERO Center has something for every unit or scenario you can think of, with capability of up to 190,000 individual training hours yearly. Financial commitments to secure 2020 training spots is now open; tours will be hosted in late 2019.
THE INTEGRATED, REALITY-BASED TRAINING FACILITY:
One important feature of the integrated facility is that it’s built for ALL first responders. Often, calls or responses are made to Police in conjunction with Fire or EMS crews. This training center will bring public safety responders- both locally and regionally- together in a safe and modern facility. With the new center, police officers, firefighters, paramedics, and EMT’s will be able to practice hands-on skills in real-life scenarios, utilizing the tools and skills they need to do their jobs. The result will be better service to the community and the region.
As public safety education continues to evolve, the use of immersive, realistic scenario-based training is increasingly utilized as an effective way to prepare police officers, firefighters and EMS staff for their real-world encounters. The training center design enables immersive, realistic scenario-based training; in 5 key indoor pods.
“Organized around the concept of training pods, the design set out set to enable agencies to train specifically in a single core skill area, or to create a sequence of training drills through the linked pods,” says Cindy McCleary, Leo A Daly lead Architect for the project, “as well, the facility layout enables multiple agencies to be training simultaneously, without impacting the adjacent drill.” This allows for flexible training as demands change, and the ability to develop training drills that more closely mimic the real field.” The facility’s indoor training pods consist of: (2) 50-seat classrooms (or a combined 100 seat classroom), state-of-the-art immersive simulation training room, reality-based training bay (with multi-level/drive through/training stair/mobile walls), dedicated Response-to-Resistance “Mats” Room, (1) 12-lane tactical 50 YD indoor range and (1) 4-lane tactical 50 YD training range. Outside, the facility boasts a large vehicle maneuvering area for apparatus and extractions, (1) canine training yard, (1) helicopter pad, and two mock house structures.
“Sharing a training facility with our partner from Woodbury really gave us the opportunity to build the best training center we could. We didn’t leave much on the cutting room floor,” says Vague. “There are so many similarities between our communities; we share the same challenges and often, we share the same calls. We are looking forward to increasing our area partnerships as more departments join us and take advantage of the HERO Center,” says Koerner.
HISTORY:
In 1999, the State of Minnesota also recognized the shortages of adequate public safety training facilities for the East metro. Through two separate reports (Minnesota Department of Public Safety: Public Safety Training Facility Needs Assessment, May 2009, and Minnesota Department of Public Safety: Statewide Master Plan for Fire and Law Enforcement Training Facilities, 1999), documented that historically, agencies relied upon a mixture of borrowed, temporary and rented facilities. Training locations are often outdated, insufficient- and in some cases unsafe. Most all involve considerable travel time and coordination. As agencies evolved to respond to increased mandates for training and desired training platforms to better prepare for real-world situations, most recognized the current facilities available for hosting this type of education are insufficient for meeting mandated training needs. The reports documented that the current state was not a sustainable system, nor did it provide for the safety and security of Public Safety staff as they train.
As Cottage Grove and Woodbury continued to train collaboratively, the agencies recognized the lack of an adequate training center and led the initiative to solve this issue. In 2013, the cities of Cottage Grove and Woodbury partnered with each other to start the planning and funding process to build a state-of-the-art public safety training facility to be available as a Regional resource. Both Cottage Grove(MN) and Woodbury (MN) provide police, fire, and emergency medical services use an integrated public safety model. This allows all three disciplines to work cooperatively to serve their communities while reducing costs through shared services. In-service training is a critical component in supporting this model. This project is a result of a strong collaboration between multiple government agencies.
In 2015, the State of Minnesota provided $1.46 million for predesign and design of the facility, and in 2018, an additional $9.5 million bonding appropriation to construct, furnish, and equip the facility. The South Washington County Telecommunications Commission and South Washington Watershed District also are contributing funding for the project. Cottage Grove and Woodbury are sharing the remaining costs to construct the $20.5 million facility. Project team members also include the architectural firm of Leo A. Daly and RJM Construction.
The training center also will create opportunities for the public, including community-based safety education and training such as CPR, firearms, and recreational vehicle safety training.
The facility, located on a 9-acre site adjacent to the Cottage Grove City Hall and Public Safety Building, is expected to open for training in January 2020.
For more information about the project, or to learn how your agency can train at this new facility, please contact Greg Rinzel, Cottage Grove Deputy Director of Public Safety at 651-458-2850 or [email protected], or Kris Mienert, Woodbury Assistant Director of Public Safety at 651-714-3600 or [email protected]
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Virginia city leaders have asked lawmakers to provide funding for a new Regional Public Safety and Training Center. The state would approve $15 million in bonding money with the city contributing the remaining $10 million through a range of financing options. Designers envision a complex that would allow for specialized, cost-effective, quality training close-to-home for Fire, Police and Public Safety departments from all over northern Minnesota. The fire station itself was built in 1907 and in recent years equipped has been modified so it can fit through the same bay doors and stalls that once housed horse-drawn steam pumpers.
This FETI® presentation is an overview of the 
from his work on Precision Policing.