Chesco safety training campus to open in April

CHESTER COUNTY

Safety training campus

scheduled to open in April

SOUTH COATESVILLE Completion of the latest phase of Chester County's public safety training campus has been delayed by bad weather but is still scheduled to open to all first responders in April, officials said.

County officials planned for the four-acre tactical village to be done by the end of 2014.

The tactical village, which is mostly finished, is set up like a small town, complete with buildings, crosswalks, and utility poles.

It is part of the training campus in South Coatesville and is estimated to cost $10 million. When it opens, Chester County will be the first in the five-county region to have a comprehensive tactical village for all first responders to use.

But crews can only install certain materials within specific temperature ranges. And last winter had stretches of brutally cold days, said project architect Robert Manns, of Manns Woodward Studios in Maryland.

Still, the buildings are pretty much done, he said. Some paving and final installation of props are all that is left.

That, too, will depend on the weather's cooperation.

- Michaelle Bond