GREEN COVE SPRINGS, Fla. – The plan for a Public Safety Complex is more of an encouraging idea, but one that seems to gain a little traction with every conversation, according to Clay Today.
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While the state and Clay County haven’t secured the money or the land to build a complex that would finally put the sheriff’s office, fire rescue, EMT, emergency management and the call center under one roof, it does have its eyes on a plot near the First Coast Expressway.
County officials have also started preliminary discussions with St. Johns River State College about moving its Florida Law Enforcement Officer Academy from its St. Augustine campus to the safety complex.
“It’s going to be a game-changer,” Sheriff Michelle Cook said.
Cook, County Manager Howard Wanamaker and SJR State College President Joe Pickens all emphasized that talks are only in the preliminary stage. However, all agreed there haven’t been any stumbling blocks.
“It’s been positive,” Wanamaker said.
The county manager said they are interested in land essentially across from the Clay County Fairgrounds. The development will be called Peters Creek Industrial Park, and if approved, it may include the SJR State College academy that will be separated from the safety complex.
Pickens said the law enforcement academy in St. Augustine needs to be upgraded. Still, before they spend millions on an overhaul, the state college may want to divert the money to building a new facility in Green Cove Springs.
“We are certainly discussing it,” Pickens said. “We have proposed the idea to our legislative delegation, and they have been supportive, even enthusiastic about the prospect. So, that’s really where we are. We are in the discussion stage. I would give you a timeline if I could give you one.”
One local said they didn’t see how clear-cutting woods and building new construction near the expressway would benefit Clay residents.
“I don’t feel like tearing it even more down would benefit us,” Aiden Stewart said.
But thousands of homes are going in that area and this is how the county keeps up.
In August, a new fire station was opened in Green Cove Springs and the county said that a new public safety complex would help centralize critical safety operations.
Pickens has given officials in St. Johns County a heads-up on the possibility of a move.
“We have not hit a hurdle yet, and so we continue to talk about it,” he said. “We have had a conversation with the county administrator in St. John’s County, and with the sheriff in St. John’s County, letting them know this was a possibility, that we were going to be discussing it, that some of those discussions were going to occur in public. We wanted them to hear it from us and be proactive. That’s really the totality of it. Yes, it’s true. We are discussing it, and those discussions are serious, but that is as far as we have gotten.”
If approved, the public safety complex isn’t likely to include a jail because a jail would have to include a courthouse, Cook said. But it would put departments that are scattered around the county in one place– the sheriff’s office and communications department are at the county courthouse, while the fire rescue department and emergency management are in a building near the fairgrounds off State Road 16 in Green Cove Springs.
To be ready, Pickens said he’s already crunching numbers on funding construction of a new law enforcement academy in Clay County.
The curriculum at SJR State College is prescribed by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Criminal Justice Standards and Training Commission in accordance with Florida Statutes. Upon completion of the program, candidates will be eligible to take the state law enforcement officer exam.
Faculty includes retired FBI, Sheriff’s Office Command Staff and military veterans. Graduates include former Green Cove Springs Police Chief E.J. Guzman, Palatka Police Chief Jason Shaw, Putnam County Sheriff “Gator” Daniel DeLoach and former St. Johns County Sheriff David Shoar. Other graduates are now members of the Clay County Sheriff’s Office and Orange Park and Green Cove Springs police departments.