CARTER COUNTY, Okla. ― Law enforcement offices in the Carter County area do not have their own training facility, but that started to change on Monday. Ground was broken Monday on the new Harvey Burkhart Firearms and Training Center of Carter County.

The training facility will be used by all the law enforcement offices of Southern Oklahoma, like the Ardmore Police Department, the Ratliff City Police Department, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, and more.

Bulldozers began clearing the 40-acre plot of land just southeast of Wilson on Monday morning, where a 1,200 square foot classroom building, along with 10 firing range lanes, will all be housed.

Currently, all Carter County law enforcement officials have to travel to Ada or Tishomingo to complete their yearly 24 hours of continuing education. Carter County Sheriff Ken Grace says that can be dangerous having officials train that far away if something happens at home.

"Anytime you take that many officers out of a county or city to go that far away from their area, the response time drops. This way, everybody can still be fairly close to where they work, so that if some emergency were to arise they can get back fairly soon, rather than going to another county or 50 or 100 miles away," Sheriff Grace said.

The Harvey Burkhart Firearms and Training Center is being funded by a $200,000 grant from the Sam Noble Foundation, and all the equipment used is being provided by the Carter County Commissioners to help keep construction costs down.

The project, named for the late Carter County Sheriff Harvey Burkhart, is expected to be finished late next year.