Mount Pleasant Awards $5.8M Contract for First Phase of Public Safety Training Center

Mount Pleasant awarded a $5,798,974 contract to MPS Construction on Monday. This covers the first phase of a public safety training center. The Bids and Purchases Committee also approved $162,932 for LCK LLC to manage construction.

The center will expand a training area in Awendaw. Firefighters will train there. Police officers will train there. Public Services Department members will use it too. Work should start by late 2025 or early 2026.

"We look at this not only as our training facility, but also as a regional turning facility. We want other fire departments, other police departments, federal agencies, to be able to come in, train with us, use this facility in a collaborative manner, and make this something that really everybody in the region can use," said Mount Pleasant Fire Chief Mike Mixon, according to ABC News 4.

MPS Construction submitted the lowest bid. Phase One covers base construction plus a recovery pavilion, K-9 training area, parking spots, roads, and utility infrastructure.

The plan includes a storage building, a big top tent structure, a maintenance shed, and a small storage shed. Phase One also adds roadways and drainage systems. Concrete improvements around the existing burn station are part of the work.

"This project builds on the infrastructure. It puts in roadways, drainage, some storage buildings, and concrete improvements around the current burn facility," said Mixon. "Then, kind of the biggest piece of this project is a 300 by 300 driving pad, which will allow police, fire, public services, to train new drivers out in a safe facility, not a parking lot, not the roadway, to really learn this new larger apparatus before they're out on the roadway."

The Capital Improvement Plan budget for fiscal year 2026 puts the total project cost at $45 million. Officials already set aside $9.3 million. The budget plans to distribute just over $20 million across the next five years.

Town leaders are now studying Phase Two. That phase would include a permanent classroom to replace a temporary structure at the site.

"Phase Two is a permanent classroom. We have a temporary structure out there now," Mixon said. "It's a permanent classroom, some divided classrooms, to allow multiple groups to train out there at once, but also some indoor space that we believe we can train for inclement weather, and police can do some low-light scenarios where those traffic stops."

Phase Three would add an indoor shooting range. The phased approach lets the town spread costs across multiple years and build on existing infrastructure piece by piece.

The 300-by-300-foot driving pad stands out as one of the main parts of Phase One. Officers will use it. Firefighters will use it. They'll practice driving large vehicles there before taking them onto public roads.