Perry police chief says new public safety training center will be ‘state of the art’

PERRY -- An old landfill is getting new life as a public safety training center.

The training center, to be located on a 39-acre closed landfill site on a remote part of Toomer Road off Ga. 224, will include pistol and shotgun/rifle firing ranges, a running track and an obstacle course.

It replaces the old police firing range, which is being paved over for the Ball Street extension.

“It’s pretty much going to be state of the art,” police Chief George Potter said of the new facility.

Targets at the new open-air firing ranges will be electronic and mobile, he said, unlike the stationary targets suspended by cables at the old range.

“It will make our training much more realistic than we could do at the older facility,” said Deputy Chief Joel Gray, fire division commander.

The training center also will house the department’s shooting simulator, which projects scenarios and allows officers to fire with a laser beam instead of ammunition, Gray said.

“You have to make that split-second decision -- shoot or don’t shoot,” he said.

Down the road, there are plans to hold a Citizen’s Police Academy, hunting safety course and women’s safety class at the training center.

As funding becomes available, the fire department will be able to set up a mock village for training, Gray said.

“Everything we do is being looked at as how it can be used by both (the police and fire) divisions,” he said.

The land for the training center is part of the Chapel Road/Ford Creek Inert Waste Landfill, which closed in July 2003. Houston County previously gave the landfill to the city of Perry, which is allowing the police department to build on the site.

Because the training center will be at a closed landfill, police had to get approval from the state Department of Natural Resources to build. About six acres are unusable because of landfill conditions, Gray said.

Construction began in the fall, and the firing ranges are expected to be operational by May 15, Gray said.

Work is being done by crews from the state Department of Corrections. Six prisoners work at the site four days a week, depending on the weather, said Randy Christian, project supervisor for the Department of Corrections.

Labor is free, with the police department paying for only diesel fuel and supplies.

Potter said the police department has spent about $35,000 to date and expects to spend less than $100,000 on the entire project. The money comes from confiscated funds.

Potter estimates the facility will be worth almost $500,000 when complete.

“We’re using bad guys’ assets to pay for things like this,” he said.

To contact writer Jennifer Burk, call 256-9705.

This story was originally published February 24, 2011 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Perry police chief says new public safety training center will be ‘state of the art’."