Groundbreaking for a 12,000-square-foot facility to train public safety personnel from throughout the region will be conducted today.
The ceremony begins at noon at the building site, 2670 Verhulst St., in the Columbus Municipal Airport Airpark.
Once completed, the Columbus Public Safety Training Facility will provide classrooms and indoor training areas for firefighters, industrial safety students, emergency medical technicians and aircraft rescue personnel from throughout southeastern Indiana, according to the city.
After the ceremony, the Columbus Fire Department’s Extraction Team will lead a demonstration of an auto accident extraction, using state-of-the-art equipment.
A construction contract worth $273,825 was awarded in January to a local firm, Building Concepts of Indiana Inc., by the Columbus Board of Works and Public Safety.
The facility will be the first step in a plan to provide up-to-date training classes for all safety personnel in the region, Columbus Fire Chief Mike Compton said.
Future plans call for the structure to become a permanent home for the Columbus Firemen’s Cheer Fund.
Although the charity has been headquartered in the Doug Otto United Way building on 13th St. since 2012, Cheer Fund personnel say their space is needed by new or expanding social service agencies.
While the shell of the structure is expected to be up by mid- to late-summer, an anticipated opening date for the building has not yet been determined, Compton said last week.
