SISSONVILLE, W.Va. — The Kanawha County Commission along with the Kanawha County Sheriff Joey Crawford broke ground Thursday on a new $2.2 million training center that will be used by more than 40 law enforcement agencies.
Crawford said the new facility will be built around and adjacent to the agency’s current shooting range at Camp Virgil Tate between Cross Lanes and Sissonville.
The old range, around since the 1980s, will be rehabbed after the new range is constructed.
“The new range will be close to a 100-yard range with approximately 22 shooting lanes. It will be covered. It will be state-of-the-art,” Crawford said.
ZMM Architects is designing the training center.
Crawford said training has changed since the original range was built because law enforcement encounter different situations than they did back then. For example, the new center will include a training location from shooting from inside a police cruiser.
“Officers are often engaged when they arrive on a scene,” Crawford said. “So the training that we are pushing out–all of the things that we didn’t face 10 to 15 years ago, we are able to incorporate that.”
There will be another 300-yard range that will be used for rifle training. There will also be updates to the shoot house on site and room for the bomb squad and K-9 training.
Crawford said the training center will be well-used, by not only deputies, but also municipal police, state police troopers, FBI, DEA and other law enforcement.
“it’s going to be a great thing. I think it’s going to make it safer for our officers, our deputies, and we have always taken pride in working well with other agencies,” Crawford said.
The sheriff added that care has been taken to separate the new facility from the public-use areas of Camp Virgil Tate.
“We worked out the land agreements and now we’re confined to that one piece of property between the two ridges and that should help with the noise and the safety,” Crawford said.
Crawford gives a lot of credit to the county commission for backing the project and helping to come up with the financing. He said Kanawha County Commission President Ben Salango toured the property with him last year and supported the improvements from the start.