ST. PAUL — Officials who run Minnesota’s Emergency Operations Center are pushing for an upgrade to it.

Leaders of the Department of Public Safety contend the downtown St. Paul center is outdated and poorly located. They say the center would be vulnerable to attack if the state Capitol were targeted.

Officials are asking lawmakers for $33 million to build a new center at the old Army munitions site in Arden Hills, a St. Paul suburb, Minnesota Public Radio News reported. The project has been before the Legislature in the past but has won only money for planning.

State Emergency Management Director Joe Kelly, who is leading the request for funding, envisions a stand-alone building of 52,000 square feet — more than double the size of the current center.

“If this was a report card that you brought home whether it’s access, functionality, redundancy, security, we would be getting a dismal grade in all of those,” Kelly said of the current center.

The proposed center would be fortified and have state-of-the-art features, Kelly said, and would be cheaper to operate than the current one.

Gov. Mark Dayton has included the proposal in a package of construction projects he sent to lawmakers.

Legislators from both parties support the goal.

State Sen. Bill Ingebrigtsen, R-Alexandria, a former county sheriff, said while the price tag may be high, the center is important.

“Stuff that we have now is way different than when I was back there nine years ago,” Ingebrigtsen said. “All that technology takes money.”