Santa Fe College Partners with City of Gainesville on Renovated Public Safety Driving Pad

April 18, 2022

April 18, 2022 – Santa Fe College partnered with the City of Gainesville to renovate the driving pad at Santa Fe College's Institute of Public Safety (IPS), creating an environment to train students at IPS entering careers in public safety, as well as current first responders employed by the City of Gainesville.

In the fall of 2021, SF entered an interlocal agreement with the City of Gainesville to make the repairs needed to the driving pad. Improvements began in January with the driving range getting repaved and the skid pad resealed. The result ensures that both safety standards and training requirements are maintained for the program which supports both entities. The facility also is used by other regional partners to maintain trained and qualified first responders in the area.

"Repaving of the driving pad is a welcome improvement to our facility," IPS Director Tom Ackerman said. "It not only helps current law enforcement in the region, but also enhances the experience for our students. This new driving pad adds to the prestige of our facility as a premiere location for training law enforcement officers and emergency medical personnel in our state."

The improvements to the driving pad follow-up on the 2018 expansion of IPS which included the construction of a "Main Street" city block complex designed to give students the most realistic scenario-based training possible.