PIONEER PRESS: Woodbury breaks ground on renovation of public safety center

Until Woodbury’s Public Safety Campus Project is complete, public safety services will temporarily run out of the former Washington County Service Center, Woodbury City Hall and other EMS and Fire stations in the city.

“It’s just so exciting,” Woodbury Mayor Anne Burt said. “It has taken many years to get to this point.”

On Friday, city, state and federal leaders and Woodbury public safety workers broke ground on the city’s current public safety building at 2100 Radio Drive in preparation for the building’s renovation. The building has been in operation since 1975, and with an aging facility and a growing population, the building is in need of updates, according to Chief Public Safety Director Jason Posel.

“The facility has kind of outlived its size, and we need to have more room for more people to provide safety to our community,” Burt said.

New facilities and technology

The entire campus is expanding to the south, where the previous Washington County Service Center was at 2150 Radio Drive. The building will be renovated to meet the needs of Woodbury’s EMS, Fire, Emergency Management, Police  and Community Support teams, according to Posel.

The current building spans more than 40,000 square feet, and after the renovation, the campus will be close to 120,000 square feet.

“As we continue to grow as a community, we’re continuing to be very thoughtful about the services that we provide to support a growing community,” Posel said.

This includes creating safer exits and entrances for first responders and their vehicles using a controlled intersection and increased parking, implementing decontamination areas for first responders, creating a “welcoming and inviting lobby for the community,” adding seven sleeping dorms to accommodate EMS and Fire staff’s 24-hour shifts and updating technology to help with things like data analysis, according to Posel.

“There’s a lot of things that we’re really excited about in terms of our ability to support the community through increased programming within the department,” Posel said. “That is going to help us with recruitment and retention of the best personnel.”

All of these improvements will be a valuable addition to the public safety department and allow their teams to serve the surrounding community well, Posel said.

The mission of Woodbury’s Public Safety Department is to “serve all people with compassion and courage,” something Burt said the team models well.

“We are so fortunate to have such an incredible, dedicated public safety team,” Burt said. “They truly serve with compassion and courage, and as many of us know, they see people on probably their worst days, whether it’s an illness, an injury, a traffic stop, or what have you. They are a compassionate team that tries to do their best to serve the community whenever needs arise.”

$60 million project

The full campus renovation is expected to cost $60 million, of which $50 million is paid for by a local sales tax that passed in November 2024.

“The community support of the Public Safety Project really makes this a special place to work,” Posel said.

Burt said a lot of planning went into the project, not only in designing the remodel, but especially in securing funding. During Friday’s ribbon-cutting ceremony, state legislators attended to support the efforts, as well as U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum and former Woodbury resident and U.S. Rep. Angie Craig, who said they worked hard to support funding for the project at the federal level.

“The new Woodbury public safety center will make sure that local law enforcement and first responders have the tools they need to keep our community safe,” Craig said. “And if there’s anything that is a first priority as an elected official, it is to do whatever is necessary to provide folks the resources to keep our communities safe.”

McCollum said Woodbury’s citizens and public safety team make it a first-class city that “everyone is going to want to visit, and a few lucky people will get to live.”

“The demands (in Woodbury) have grown. … If we give you all the resources you need,” McCollum said of Woodbury’s first responders during the event, “we know you could be even more amazing in the services you provide.”

Where to go for services

During construction, Fire and EMS crews will work out of Woodbury’s additional stations, Fire Station 2, 6301 Upper Afton Road, Fire Station 3, 6975 Thames Road and Fire Station 4 on Fox Run Road, 1275 Woodbury Drive.

Public Safety members will also temporarily work out of the former Washington County License Center building, next to the current public safety building on Radio Drive, though that site is not open to the public.

If Woodbury residents and visitors have a public safety need, need to report a crime or connect with law enforcement in person, they can go to Woodbury City Hall, 8301 Valley Creek Road, where a member of the public safety team will be available to help.

“Effectively, our main lobby for public safety has moved over to City Hall during the construction process,” Posel said.

Construction for the project will be complete in 2028.