The City of Cottage Grove is putting money into a movable wall system to allow for better space utilization at the HERO Center.

The HERO (Health Emergency Response Occupations) Center is a joint operation of the cities of Cottage Grove and Woodbury. It is an immersive training center for police, fire and Emergency Medical Services. It’s located on nine acres adjacent to the Cottage Grove City Hall and Public Safety Building, 10125 85th St. S.

The project total cost was $20.5 million, and the State of Minnesota provided $1.46 million for project design and $9.5 million in bonding. The building was completed last year.

The facility was deemed necessary to help Cottage Grove and Woodbury provide police and emergency services “using an integrated public safety model,” according to the Hero Center website. “This allows all three disciplines to work cooperatively to service the community while reducing costs through shared services. In-service training is a critical component in supporting this model and plays a crucial role in supporting staff who train together as a team.”

The request that was before the Cottage Grove City Council this week was for moveable wall panels to complete the training area in the lower level area.

A memo to the council from City Administrator Jennifer Levitt states, “When the bid documents were assembled for the HERO Center, we provided for a number of alternates that could be added into the project. One of the bid alternatives provided was a Hufcor movable wall system in the lower level area in the large bay. As part of the original contract, we installed the track system to support the addition of the panels.”

The new wall panels will allow for more usable, rentable space in the facility for training exercise.

“This space will allow for customers and agency users to have an additional training space in which they can customize the room layout to meet the needs of their training exercises,” Levitt wrote. “Currently the facility has one space in the upper mezzanine area in which the Hufcor panels are in place. By adding the lower level moveable wall panels, we will be able to accommodate more customers who are in need of this high demand training space.”

“The Hufcor panels have revolutionized the way law enforcement and fire departments train because it allows them to change the environment from one scenario to the next. It also allows them to use simulation rounds inside the wall system to train tactically and proficiently in this dynamic space when conducting building searches and rescue missions,” said Levitt. “This space will allow fire departments to conduct low visibility searches with dead end hallways and rooms all configured with the moveable wall system.”

Right now, the most in-demand spaces at the center are the shooting range, mats room and the Hufcor system areas.

“By having the lower level panels in place, we will be able to accommodate two different agencies at one time in our reality based training area. This addition will increase our revenue stream for the rented spaces available,” Levitt wrote.

The total cost of the additional wall system is $162,859. There is still $9,023.38 in the HERO Center contingency fund, which means that Cottage Grove and Woodbury will split the remaining balance.

Cottage Grove’s plan is to earmark funding of $76,917.81 from its Public Safety Forfeiture Fund.

Examples of training at the HERO Center with Hufcor moveable wall systems.