A new center offering training and education for first responders including police and firefighters has opened in Columbus.
Evolution Training Center, 2670 Verhulst St. in the Columbus Air Park was merely a thought just four years ago.
When retired Columbus Fire Chief Mike Compton interviewed for the chief position in 2015, he told the mayor’s selection team about his desire to improve how the Columbus Fire Department conducts training.
“One particular goal which is very important to achieve the overall vision was a proper facility where training and education could be safely conducted,” Compton said. “I shared my vision for an improved facility where training could be conducted day and night so our first responders are trained to the highest possible level in a facility that meets the needs of the fire service and public safety professionals.”
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Compton brought to the selection committee’s attention the condition of the then-current facility — a 30-year-old two-car garage that had been converted into a 20-seat classroom.
The garage had withstood extensive damage in 2015 due to a broken water line that flooded the building. A family of raccoons took up residence in the attic shortly after, and the building had been deemed unfit for occupancy.
Safety personnel had overcome these obstacles by setting up a small classroom in Fire Station 1 just around the corner and did the best with what they had; but that little classroom wouldn’t suffice forever, firefighters said.
Mayor Jim Lienhoop and his administration believed in the vision, and in 2016, work was underway to brainstorm a plan to create a versatile, high-quality training facility in the region.
On Tuesday, a nearly four-year project in the making became a reality as Compton, Lienhoop and current Columbus Fire Chief Andy Lay uncoupled a fire hose to mark the grand opening of Evolution Training Center.
A vision realized
The 12,000-square-foot Evolution facility has an 8,000-square-foot gymnasium, a firearms training facility and an indoor, one-room police shooting simulator with a video screen. The facility also features two classrooms that are each capable of holding up to 50 individuals and a conference room.
The exterior includes a live fire training tower, a motor vehicle extrication prop, a vehicle fire training prop, a confined space training prop, a propane tank fire training prop and a vertical ventilation roof simulator.
A construction contract worth $273,825 was awarded in January 2018, to a local firm, Building Concepts of Indiana Inc., and crews broke ground on the land in March 2018.
In determining Columbus’ needs, Columbus firefighters and city employees toured Wayne Township Fire Department’s safety training facility in Indianapolis and the Multi Agency Academic Cooperative (MAAC) Center in Valparaiso. Compton said those two facilities helped him formulate an idea for what Columbus needed for a successful training environment.
“Our mission is to save lives, protect property and mitigate incidents that threaten the wellbeing of our community,” Lay said. “To successfully achieve these three objectives, we need the right people, the right equipment and continuous training. The facility you’re standing in today is the result of four years of research, planning and collaboration to better equip our first responders with the tools needed to safely and efficiently execute our duties.”
In 2018, Columbus Fire Department responded 6,000 times to incident calls in the Columbus community. That’s more than 16 calls a day, one every hour and a half, Lienhoop said.
“If you’ve got to respond that quickly, you can’t think a lot,” Lienhoop said. “You’ve got to rely on your training. You have to be well-trained because you have to respond now. That’s why it’s important for us, important for our community, to have a facility where our people can go and get the training they need.”
The shell of the Evolution Training Center was completed as phase No. 1 of the project. The exterior resembles a pole barn with metal on the outside, insulation, then metal on the inside with concrete flooring. The second phase included the classrooms and everything south of the gymnasium wall, including carpeting and paint.
“We’re firemen; we don’t specialize in building things, so we had to learn the entire system; planning, design and codes,” Compton said.
Steve Thomas was hired on as project manager, recommended by Columbus City Council, and he helped coordinate all the hoops firefighters had to jump through to get through the process.
Compton said they tried to make choices that would withstand the rigorous style of firefighters and public safety workers. For example, the carpeting in the front area of the facility was placed in squares, so if something happens to one carpet square, it can easily be replaced without tearing out the entire carpet.
The idea for the name “Evolution” came from research done by Columbus Municipal Airport personnel, Compton said.
When the fire department completes training exercises, they call their exercises “evolutions.”
“If we do a live burnout in our tower, we’ll have our firefighters set up, make sure all the safety stuff is in place, have them go in, shut it all down, then do a second evolution, then a third evolution,” Compton said. “We see what mistakes we made and improve on those mistakes. The name was a natural fit.”
Compton and the team behind the facility’s creation also worked with a design class at Ivy Tech Columbus to incorporate design elements and make the facility welcoming to the public.
“I think it’s something this place is going to be here for a long time and make all public safety personnel better at their job because of this facility,” Compton said.
Meeting a regional need
Compton had no idea the concept of a local training facility that he initially brought up during his 2015 job interview would evolve into fulfilling a regional need, he said.
The Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE) local chapter was instrumental in developing the regional plan. SCORE, a resource partner of the U.S. Small Business Administration, is considered the nation’s largest network of volunteer business mentors.
Standing in the building he once dreamed about, Compton said his heart was overwhelmed with gratitude.
“When you step off the engine or step out of your command vehicle, you have to be able to react immediately,” Compton said. “That’s not to say you have all the answers, but you have to be able to respond in a way that will make the situation go away. Before you can go home, you have to stabilize it and leave it better than we found it.”
Compton said he is confident that the Evolution Training Center will become a destination for area departments seeking quality public safety training.
First responders from throughout southern Indiana — who routinely travel to Louisville, Indianapolis and Valparaiso for training — confirmed the need for the regional facility in Columbus before the city ever approved funding, Lienhoop said in an earlier interview.
Lienhoop said the city will be able to charge rental fees that are expected to eventually make back the initial $274,000 investment, as well as establish funds for possible expansion. In October 2017, Columbus City Council approved establishing a non-reverting fund that would be used to accumulate revenue generated from the facility.
The city also approved in March a one-year contract for former hotelier Ray Wagner to manage the new facility, paying $33.65 per hour for an average of 20 hours a week. He will be in charge of scheduling, managing the facility and keeping it maintained and clean, according to city officials.
The goal is for the facility to one day become a one-stop shop for public safety departments across the region with all the equipment and instructors that department needs to accomplish high-level training.
“This is truly going to be something great,” Lay said. “Like the name says, ‘Evolution,’ it’s going to evolve. We don’t know where it’s going, but we know it’s up.”
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The Evolution Training Center is a public safety training facility where training and education can be safely conducted in one place. The 12,000-square-foot facility on the north side of Columbus offers firefighters and other first responders opportunities for classroom and hands-on training.
It features two 50-person classrooms, an EMS lab to do recertifications for paramedics, a firearms simulator for target practices, among other training options.
The exterior includes a live fire training tower, a motor vehicle extrication prop, a vehicle fire training prop, a confined space training prop, a propane tank fire training prop and a vertical ventilation roof simulator.
The Evolution Training Center is located at 2670 Verhulst St. in the Columbus Air Park, which surrounds the Columbus Municipal Airport.
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